Melanie Phillips is a British writer/commentator, with a long history of making sense – especially now, when senselessness is more and more the coin of the realm.
Last night, Ms. Phillips made a speech at the opening of the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) conference in Jerusalem. Its subject was Iran – what has happened there, how it is being handled by the Trump administration and, more generally, how Israel is being treated by the world.
The speech was a major blockbuster that, I wish, every person capable of thinking about, absorbing, and reacting to what they have thought about/absorbed, would read every word of…
…so let me provide an opportunity to do so. Click here for the entire text of her speech.
Here here are a couple of particularly meaningful excerpts:
What we’re seeing is first and foremost an Islamist war against the west being waged through an onslaught against Israel and the Jews. The Islamists have always told us: first we are coming for the Jews, and then we are coming for the Christians.
Much of the west, alas, doesn’t understand this. It’s not joining up the dots. As a result, in Britain, Europe and America, there’s a refusal to do what it takes to defend itself.
President Trump has turned on a dime to escape from a trap. This trap is because, in his words, an imminent global economic disaster caused by Iran taking hostage the Strait of Hormuz cannot be tolerated by him.
But we have to ask, how in the world is mighty America unable to defeat a massively weakened Iran? The short answer is that to do so probably requires American boots on the ground. And that’s something the president will not commit himself to do do. Because the American people wouldn’t wear it.
Why is that? It’s because they don’t think the war with Iran has anything to do with their interests. That’s astonishing, given the hundreds of Americans attacked and killed by Iran over the past four decades as it’s pursued its war cry “Death to America”.
What this initiative in the MoU means is that everyone can now see America is not prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to defend itself. And that will have emboldened evil forces threatening the west from around the world.
Britain and Europe, meanwhile, are unwilling to go to war at all. They dance to the tune of kumbaya liberal universalism, which means they say all conflict must be ended by negotiation and compromise. Even with genocidal fanatics.
They say nothing has ever been solved by war. What do they think was going on between 1939 and 1945, one wonders?
Their belief in the “brotherhood of man” means that at home they’ve embraced multiculturalism and mass immigration. They’ve told themselves it’s racist to uphold their own historic culture over anyone else’s because the west was born in the original sins of colonialism and whiteness.
So they allowed in millions of Muslim immigrants. And now their societies are well on the way to Islamisation. Now let’s be clear: many, many Muslims in Britain and Europe pose no threat to anyone. They want to enjoy the benefits of western society. But huge numbers of them do pose a threat, either through terrorism or their agenda to Islamise the culture.
But the political and cultural elites in the west won’t even admit this is happening, denouncing instead anyone who sounds the alarm as Islamophobic, racist or fascist.
Since October 7, ecstatic Islamists who, like the Iranian regime, believe that the final defeat of Israel and the west is now at hand, have been spearheading an onslaught on diaspora Jews.
But they’re being supported by many non-Muslims. What’s been so shocking is not just the demonstrations with their chants to murder Jews and destroy Israel. It’s that verbal and physical attacks on Jews have redoubled even after Jewish people have been viciously assaulted or even murdered in Britain and other western countries.
We’re seeing that violence against Jews just excites the bloodlust. No-one wants to know about Jewish victimisation. No-one wants to hear about antisemitism.
All the guardrails against Jew-hatred have come down. There’s an attempt within the west not just to get rid of Israel but to get rid of the Jews from their heads, their conscience and their world.
It’s emerged as anti-Zionism because wall-to-wall falsehoods about Israel’s behaviour, parroted by the universities, the media and the global humanitarian establishment, have framed Zionism as evil and Israel as diabolically monstrous. Appallingly, these blood libels have been framed as conscience itself.
In Britain and increasingly in America too, courage now consists of supporting the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
Do yourself a favor. You’ve got the link (here it is again). Please read the entire speech. Then think about what Ms. Phillips was saying.
And when you do think about what Ms. Phillips was saying, I hope you will realize how true, how relevant and how important it is.
