Israel Archives | Page 3 of 21 | MelaniePhillips.com

The real centre ground: the only political show in town

March 6, 2020 Melaniecentre ground, democracy, Israel, Joe Biden

Democracy, the process through which the people get to choose who governs them, involves a choice of leaders telling competing stories about how the world should be organized. A healthy society, we have told ourselves, involves regularly changing those leaders and their stories to provide the checks and balances essential to avoid the dangers inherent in one-party rule. In Israel, the United States and Britain, that process has stalled. The reason is that, in all three countries as elsewhere in the west, the story offered by the progressive side of…

Israel Jewish people

Denying their parent and embracing their assassin

February 14, 2020 Melanieantisemitism, church, Islam, supersessionism

The Church of England has once again been performing the ritual that has been enacted by progressive protestant churches in the West for decades: liberal self-flagellation. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said this week that he was ashamed of the Anglican attitude to black people, and declared that the church was “deeply, institutionally racist.” So ashamed was he of having previously been unaware of his “white privileges and advantages,” he even compared the behavior of the church to the way the German people allowed the Nazis to persecute the…

Israel

Arabs in uproar – over the prospect of living in Palestine

February 7, 2020February 7, 2020 MelanieIsrael, Palestinians, trump

Leave aside, for the moment, the deepening rows about U.S. President Donald Trump’s “vision” for ending the Middle East conflict. Leave aside the question whether the plan’s lead author, Jared Kushner, and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, backtracked on an “immediate” Israeli declaration of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the “Triangle” of disputed territory (they didn’t; the need to first map out and agree on the details was stated from the start). Leave aside the uproar among Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, along with certain southern…

Israel

The Palestinians’ bluff has been called. Over to you, world

January 31, 2020 Melanie"deal of the century", Israel, Palestinians, President Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East “deal of the century” offers the Palestinians a state. They have rejected it and threatened instead to ramp up violence against Israel. No one can be surprised. They have rejected every offer of a state previously made to them in 1937, 1947, 2000, 2008 and 2014. So is this latest deal anything more than Groundhog Day for the Middle East all over again? Yes, because this isn’t a deal. It’s an ultimatum. Israel intends to enact its part in the plan unilaterally by declaring…

Britain Israel

A Boris bear-hug against British antisemitism

December 27, 2019December 27, 2019 Melanieantisemitism, Boris Johnson, jews, Palestinians

Is the British government beginning to change its century-old attitude of ambiguity towards Israel and come out instead as its unequivocal friend? Don’t get too excited just yet. It’s certainly true that, fresh from his thumping election victory, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered an extraordinary Hanukkah message to the country’s antisemitism-beleaguered Jewish community. Going far beyond predictable seasonal bromides, he delivered a very pointed profession of heartfelt support. The festival of lights, he said, was a time to celebrate the Jews’ unique identity. “When the Maccabees drove the forces…

Israel

Islamists are not the same as other prisoners

December 6, 2019 MelanieCourt of Appeal, Islamic terrorism, Usman Khan

The terrorist attack by Usman Khan on a prisoner rehabilitation conference in London was made possible by two catastrophic and tragic misjudgments. The first was by the Court of Appeal, which changed Khan’s sentence. At the root of their mistake lay a failure to understand fanatical Islam. This failure also characterised the second misjudgment, by both the group that had invited Khan to its conference and the probation service which enabled him to attend: believing that he was a reformed character. This was rooted in a deeper refusal to acknowledge…

Global conflict Israel

As the west goes terribly wrong, Arabs inch in the right direction

November 28, 2019November 28, 2019 MelanieGulf states, Israel, reformers, Saudi Arabia

As the west goes in one direction, so the Arab world is now going in the other. While British and western “progressive” circles descend ever deeper into the sewers of antisemitism and its contemporary mutation, the campaign to exterminate the State of Israel, the Arab world is beginning to renounce its own desire to wipe Israel off the map. Prominent figures from 15 Arab countries met in London last week to reject the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement — whose aim is to destroy Israel — and encourage the…

Israel

Negotiation in a war of extermination is no solution but surrender

November 22, 2019November 22, 2019 Melanieinternational law, Israel, Mike Pompeo, settlements

The statement by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Israel’s settlements “are not inconsistent with international law” has been predictably greeted with adulation by Israel’s defenders and denunciation by its enemies. Both sides, however, are once again missing the elephant in the room — as the Trump administration itself is also doing. In its own terms, the statement certainly should be warmly welcomed. It is a remarkable stand for the truth against the unanimous endorsement by the Western world of the big lie about Israel that has done so…

Israel

Labelling the Jewish state as unequal

November 15, 2019December 24, 2019 MelanieAmnesty International, European Court of Justice, gaza, Israel

As Israel came under attack this week with hundreds of rockets raining down from Gaza, and as it steeled itself for even worse, the Israel-bashers were up to their old tricks. On Tuesday, the European Court of Justice issued its ruling in the Psagot winery case. It said that the origin of any foodstuffs, such as Psagot wine, made in an Israeli settlement in the “occupied territories” must be described as such. This was to enable consumers to make “ethical considerations and considerations relating to the observance of international law,”…

Israel

Britain’s deepening political nightmare

November 8, 2019November 11, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, general election, Nigel Farage

So here’s how things appear to stand at this point, 34 days before the Brexit general election which is being fought principally on the issue of whether or not Britain wants to get Brexit done. The Labour party is imploding, with Labour loyalists saying Labour voters should vote Conservative in order to save the country from the unconscionable threat of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister. The Brexit party is disintegrating, with even a number of its own former candidates backing the EU deal done by Boris Johnson. This although their…