Melanie Phillips

It's groundhog day in the universities. The spectre of an academic boycott of Israel is now doing the rounds yet again, almost three years to the day since an infamous letter to the Guardian first put it on the agenda.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

Diminutive in stature though he is, Natan Sharansky, Israel's minister for Jerusalem and the diaspora, is surely one of the moral giants of our age.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

Last week I took part in an Intelligence Squared debate on Zionism. This was a more than usually disturbing experience. It wasn't just that the motion, 'Zionism today is the real enemy of the Jews', blamed Jewish self-determination for the current threat to Jewish existence.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

In fact, they tend to be disillusioned former left-wingers and Democrats; while Irving Kristol, the grand-daddy of neo-conservatism who coined the famous quip that the neo-cons were 'liberals who had been mugged by reality', is a former Trotskyite.

What 'extreme right' really means is 'extremely moral'.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

Last September, the Times reported some startling remarks made at a private Anglo-Italian conference by the British ambassador to Italy, Sir Ivor Roberts.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

The Home Secretary let it be known this week that he intends to abolish the law of blasphemy, at the same time as introducing a new crime of incitement to religious hatred.

Abolishing blasphemy is long overdue.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

Having just spent some time in America, I'm afraid I've come back with stars and stripes in my eyes. For the short period I was there I felt as if I could breathe again, a relief that evaporated as soon as I touched down at Heathrow.

It wasn't just that New York, where I was for part of the time, is such a Jewish city.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

We journalists spend much of our lives highlighting the iniquities and other intolerable acts visited by our fellow human beings upon each other. So much is, sadly, all too necessary. What we are much less good at, however, is showing the good that people do.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

Next week, Lord Butler will publish his eagerly awaited report on the use of intelligence on Iraq. Already, pre-emptive strikes and counter-strikes are whistling around his head.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

There's nothing like smearing someone as a racist for making friends and influencing people. Reading through the report by the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, my eye was caught by a short extract from a column of mine.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

It is said that truth is the first casualty of war. Now, however, it seems that war has become the casualty of the disintegration of truth.

It has become clear that the Daily Mirror's photographs of British soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners were faked.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

Truly, we are living in a time of madness. Fifty-two former British diplomats have attacked Tony Blair for supporting George Bush over Iraq and Israel.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

The Spanish election result is quite simply a catastrophe for democrats and lovers of peace and freedom all over the world. Following the carnage in Madrid, 11 million Spaniards marched in apparent solidarity against terror.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

It is an odd fact that, despite his reputation for supremely manipulative political skills, the Prime Minister has made such a poor fist of selling his case for the war against Iraq.

Those who are anti-war may say it's because he took the country to war on a lie.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

David Goodhart, editor of the liberal magazine Prospect, has written a thoughtful article about national identity and the challenges it faces from mass immigration.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

In keeping with its legendary reputation for winning international hearts and minds, Israel's government has developed a revolutionary model of diplomacy.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

I read David Aaronovitch's JC column last week with more than usual interest.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has compared Tony Blair's decision to support the invasion of Iraq to Hitler's annexation of Czechoslovakia. Hitler, he said, also claimed to be protecting the rights of an indigenous population.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

A few months ago, I wrote in this space about the lamentable failure by Israel to get its case across.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

One of the most widespread and disturbing assumptions of our age is that if people suffer from any disadvantage, privation or adversity, they must by definition be victims of someone else. Well, sometimes they are, but sometimes they aren't.

Published in: Jewish Chronicle