I have known Melanie Phillips for some time. In fact, she was at one point my home desk news editor at the Guardian.
Strange though it may now seem, Phillips in that era epitomised the anguished North London liberal, existentially unsure about whether to obey the dictates of her heart or her head.
Phillips is by no means the only former Guardian colleague to make the journey from soft liberal left to hard Islamophobic right, from an Ed Miliband figure to a Michael Gove. But unlike some I could mention, this rite of passage had little to do with money.
Phillips thought it could help her better serve the cause of Israel, which is now, according to her, under more threat than ever before.
For her, the current idea of Israel is very different from the one she proclaimed at the Guardian, where she was fully at home. It had always been a Zionist newspaper. …..more
