Melanie Phillips

Asked by the Guardian to respond to my suggestion of stupidity in declaring that Islamophobia had ‘crossed the threshold of middle-class respectability’ Baroness Warsi, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, said:

Published in: melanie's blog

Yup, Michele Bachmann gets it -- and how. Bachmann is a Christian. Christianity owes its existence to Judaism. An unbreakable thread links Judaism, Christianity and America. Israel embodies American and western values. Abandon Israel and you abandon America and destroy the west.

Published in: Melanie's blog

Appallingly, that fine and prominent Australian journalist Andrew Bolt is being prosecuted in an Australian court for racial discrimination.

Published in: Melanie's blog

The Israeli historian Professor Benny Morris is currently spending time in Britain doing research for a new book. Morris has earned the unusual distinction of becoming a target of ire from both sides of the political divide. Once excoriated as a ‘New Historian’ for allegedly distorting the early history of Israel, in recent years he has become a hate-figure for the left. This is because, since the 2000 intifada, he has come to believe that the single most important reason for the Middle East impasse is that there is no Palestinian ‘partner for peace’, and that instead the Palestinians show, by every word and deed that they want to wipe Israel off the map.

Published in: Melanie's blog

Colonel Richard Kemp, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, spoke in Tel Aviv six days ago about the Israel Defence Force.

Published in: Melanie's blog

I have received the following comment from an Icelandic reader:

'I just wanted to tell you that, thanks to your articles and writings in defence of Israel that I was finally able to see what Israel has to live with every day of its existence and to make matters worse is hounded by the western left p

Published in: Melanie's blog

I have just got round to reading Roger Scruton’s splendid book, The Uses of Pessimism and the Danger of False Hope, which was published last year.

Published in: Melanie's blog

Welcome to all those who have been used to reading my blog on the Spectator site. From now on, the blog will be housed on this website, which I hope will expand and develop over the coming months.

Published in: Melanie's blog

Amidst widespread horror at the revelations by BBC TV Panorama of shocking systematic abuse at residential home for people with learning disabilities, the Prime Minister’s office has asked for an account of what various official agencies knew about the place.

Published in: Spectator

Two things are due to happen in Gaza in June.

The first is that a second shopping mall is due to open.

Published in: Spectator

The Times (£) says that David Cameron’s decision to step down from being a patron of the Jewish National Fund shows the British government is becoming cool on Israel.

You don’t

Published in: Spectator

In a particularly authoritative analysis, Charles Krauthammer identifies the extent of the threat posed by Obama to Israel’s interests  in his ‘1967 lines&rsquo

Published in: Spectator

On Tuesday evening, I went to the first night of Richard Bean’s new play at London’s National Theatre, One Man, Two Guvnors. It fully deserves the rave reviews it has received (see here, &

Published in: Spectator

The brazenness of the lie just makes you gasp.

Obama’s attempted ambush of Israel over the ‘1967 lines’ has been boomeranging in all kinds of ways, including in Israel itself.

Published in: Spectator

The profound illiberalism of the British so-called liberal has been on egregious display over the past day. The British government has a new advisory panel on sexual health, replacing its old Independent Advisory Group on the issue.

Published in: Spectator

Apparently the British government is shocked – shocked! – that the European Union’s foreign service is attempting to usurp the role and authority of British diplomats.

Fancy!

T

Published in: Spectator

The splendid Daniel Greenfield, aka Sultan Knish, has penned a savage satire, ‘Three cheers for Terroristine’, on the madness through which we are living:

Why do we need

Published in: Spectator

In these terrible times when western elites are dominated by the fellow-travellers of Islamo-fascism and genocidal Judeophobia, it is very important to realise that there are also some outstandingly decent, courageous and rational individuals who are putting their heads above the parapet and speaking up for Israel

Published in: Spectator

I don’t know what strategic purpose Obama had in mind for addressing the Middle East impasse when last Thursday he made the first of a series of speeches on the subject. Whatever this may have been, that speech produced one satisfactory result.

Published in: Spectator

Yesterday, there was an organised attempt by Arab mobs to storm three of Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, along with violent rioting and other incidents in east Jerusalem.

Published in: Spectator