Jeremy Havardi, at The Blogs

Apply for a Blog

May 4, 2022, 12:46 PM

Lavrov and the contemptuous distortion of history and politics

Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine has been based from the start on a twisted reading of history. Moscow says it wants to ‘de-Nazify’ its neighbour and cleanse it of fascist elements within, while arguing perversely that Ukraine has no independent existence. This forms the backdrop...

Mar 16, 2022, 9:49 AM

Putin’s war and a parallel with the Iranian nuclear negotiations

Vladimir Putin

Putin’s murderous assault on Ukraine has shocked the world and produced a justified wave of support for the beleaguered nation. But true to form, the breast-beating sections of the western commentariat assume that the fault lies elsewhere than the Kremlin. They refuse to see Putin’s...

Jan 4, 2022, 1:05 PM

Tutu showed even the most cherished anti-racists can succumb to bigotry

Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaking during the One Young World Summit ceremony at Old Billingsgate, London. (Via Jewish News)

The last week has seen an outpouring of praise for Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Prize winning priest long described as ‘the moral conscience of his nation’. He was a ‘modern day activist for racial justice’ (AP News), a ‘patriot without equal’ (NBC), ‘the staunch...

Oct 6, 2021, 12:29 PM

Miller was fired for verbally abusing Jewish students, NOT Israel

David Miller (Screenshot from CST's Twitter via Jewish News)

Was professor David Miller fired by Bristol University because he dared to criticise Israel? Going by some leading headlines last week, that would certainly appear to be the case. The BBC News website stated that Miller was ‘sacked over Israel comments’ before going on to...

Aug 20, 2021, 12:07 PM

The Afghan pull-out is a humiliating failure

MoD handout photo of British citizens and dual nationals residing in Afghanistan being relocated to the UK, as part of Operation PITTING, the UK Armed Forces are enabling the relocation of personnel and others from Afghanistan. Issue date: Monday August 16, 2021. (Via Jewish News)

The withdrawal from Afghanistan is one of the most shameful and embarrassing foreign policy failures in decades, and one which will leave deep scars for years to come. It is a betrayal of national self-interest, a boon to the west’s enemies and the precursor to...

May 12, 2021, 3:08 PM

Please, spare us the false equivalence over Gaza

A Palestinian protester during clashes with Israeli police at Damascus Gate on Saturday night (Photo: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun) via Jewish News

Right now, Israel is facing the latest in a long line of Iranian inspired, Palestinian terror assaults on its civilian population. Over 1,000 rockets have been fired from Gaza, with several Israelis murdered and many others injured. If not for the Iron Dome and the...

Feb 24, 2021, 1:18 PM

Bristol University is complicit in anti-intellectual hysteria

David Miller (Screenshot from CST's Twitter via Jewish News)

Much of the recent criticism of Bristol University’s Professor David Miller has focused on his abusive dismissal of Zionism. There is certainly a great deal to condemn here. In a recent campaign event, he speaks of the need to defeat Zionism as a ‘functioning ideology...

Aug 13, 2020, 5:47 PM

Wiley alientated the very people who were his allies

Grime artist Wiley has been dropped by his management company over accusations of anti-Semitism.( Photo credit : Matt Crossick/PA Wire via Jewish News)

Last month, leading black British newspaper The Voice published an interview with the rapper Wiley following his attacks on the Jewish community. There is no condemnation of Wiley’s antisemitic remarks, the tropes he used to denigrate Jewry or his threatening language. Instead, he is treated...

Jul 1, 2020, 2:05 PM

BLM is fighting racism with racism

Black Lives Matter UK has stirred deep controversy with an incendiary tweet in support of freeing ‘Palestine.’ The tweet, which referenced the impending ‘annexation of the West Bank’ and ‘Israel’s settler colonial pursuits,’ claimed that ‘mainstream British politics’ was ‘gagged of the right to critique...

Jun 12, 2020, 5:42 PM

Is it time to topple monuments to antisemitism?

A worker sits down as they take down a statue of slave owner Robert Milligan at West India Quay, east London (Yui Mok/PA Wire via Jewish News)

When the statue of Edward Colston was toppled last Sunday, some chose to depict it as a triumphant denunciation of slavery. As well as being a philanthropist, Colston was a slave trader, a symbol of the monstrous institution that stained Britain and other European countries...

Load more

About Me

Jeremy is an author and the Director of B'nai Brith UK's Bureau of International Affairs