The Independent, not normally noted for its promotion of Christianity or Christian ideals, has jumped on the Christmas Blood Libel bandwagon.

'What would happen if the Virgin Mary came to Bethlehem today?'

I have not linked directly to The Independent’s site (remember, this is the rag which published a Der Stuermer style blood libel cartoon of a Jewish leader eating a Palestinian baby). Instead, I have linked a site whose commenters provide a number of realistic answers to the question.

One suggests:

As a young Jewish mother who had not been married nine months quite yet, I think it is rather obvious what the Palestinians would do to her. There is no question she would be tortured and killed.

Another, ploome hineni, does some swift detective work and discovers another article by the same author, Johann Hari, this time in the Guardian.

....it was pretty tough for me to figure out which, if any, of the assembled delicious Nazis were gay, and which just looked it. I know I should have been so repulsed by these fascists that the thought of sex was abhorrent; but when you are actually confronted with the reality of extremists (and I've met quite a lot of them), it is very hard to actually take them seriously. Sure, they rant about Jews and gays (the two minorities closest to my heart), but it just seems so absurd that I can't help but smile and do my job: pretending to be one of them.

As she says: ...the backstory is always so interesting, n'est pas?

And Hari says Jews are one of "the two minorities closest to my heart". Does that means some of his best friends are...? well, you know the usual claim.