Finkelstein’s very valid interview

Earlier this month the BBC's Hardtalk TV programme featured an interview with the American-Jewish political scientist Norman Finkelstein. As a result the BBC has brought upon itself a great deal of communal opprobrium, on two counts.

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Isaac, Jacob, Moses — and Ed

Journalism is a competitive business but sometimes the competition comes from a wholly unexpected source. I'd planned a while ago to write in this slot about the Jewishness of Ed Miliband. Little did I know that the latest edition of the New Statesman, a special on British Jewish life published on Thursday, would carry a column on the same topic - written by Ed Miliband.

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Oh, those loony Jewish lobby fantasies

Somehow I missed it. Three days after 9/11, the former Private Eye editor, Richard Ingram, wrote in the Observer condemning coverage for missing what he considered to be a crucial point.

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A good hour's scandalous end?

Within the next few weeks the BBC, which is funded by British taxpayers through revenues derived from the television licence fee, will take a decision directly affecting the lives of, if not all British Jews, then certainly those living in the North-West.

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Can't pay, won't pay: the next generation of synagogue-goers

So severe is the crisis in Greece that donations to the Jewish community and payments towards synagogue fees have reportedly fallen by a half. No one imagines that things could get quite so bad in Britain, no matter how bleak the economic weather.

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Anglo-Jewry’s leaders must act

Last month the Times of Israel carried an essay by one Shimon Cohen attacking the distinguished former leader of Australian Jewry, Isi Leibler, who is now based in Israel. In March Leibler - a onetime senior vice-president of the World Jewish Congress - had launched a blistering critique of the current leadership of British Jewry.

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A French-Greek wake-up call

The recent elections here and in Europe have left Jews and all who care about freedom and democracy with many reasons for unease.

In Greece, around two thirds of those who voted did so for extremist parties of left and right. Chillingly, the neo-Nazi "Golden Dawn"party won no fewer than 21 seats.

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OK, Corbyn, let's have an inquiry

In the wake of the Raed Salah fiasco a member of the British parliament made an outrageous intervention, about which every British Jew ought to feel thoroughly alarmed.

Salah was accused by the Home Secretary of being an antisemitic, Israeli Arab rabble-rouser who used his oratorical powers to defame both the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

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United by Galloway and Le Pen

On the night David Cameron entered 10 Downing Street, I wrote about the deal he had done with the Liberal Democrats. It seemed to be a significant moment in the development of the centre-right, postponing the day when Labour could annex the entire Lib Dem support.

That now looks correct in retrospect. Correct, but incomplete.

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Dangerous lies that spread from Auschwitz to Srebrenica

The words "I was wrong" rarely appear under journalists' bylines. But in the Observer this week, John Simpson, the veteran BBC correspondent, acknowledged that he had been mistaken about a libel trial arising from the Bosnian war.

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