The heroic warrior nation defending the civilised world: My speech at the JNS security conference
Melanie Phillips, Jun 22, 2026
I gave a speech last night at the opening of the JNS security conference in Jerusalem. The text of what I said follows below.
"This past week has been a shocking one.
"President Trump produced a ceasefire agreement that seemed to have been dictated by Tehran. He and JD Vance lashed out viciously at Israel, America’s close and indispensable ally in this war.
"Now, Donald Trump is the only American president ever to have waged war on the Iranian regime. He and Israel had it on the ropes. Their achievements in drastically weakening the Iranian regime have been absolutely astonishing.
"So why did he suddenly release the pressure, throw away his advantage and hand Iran the power to dictate events?
"Well, I suggest the answer to that puzzle links America, Britain and Europe. None of them properly understands the war being waged against them all.
"This is an unprecedented and seismic moment in history. The onslaught upon Israel and the Jewish world is coming at us from all sides.
"The barbarities of October 7 presented the west with a challenge. Would it choose civilisation or barbarism?
"Much of the west, we now see, alas, has turned its back on civilisation.
"Instead of supporting Israel against genocidal attack, it’s turned instead against Israel and the Jewish people in an unprecedented loss of reason and moral compass.
"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. 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.
"In Britain, the result of this has been, for example, a refusal to deal with the infamous mainly Muslim rape and grooming gangs you’ve read about. There’s a wilful blindness towards jihadi preachers in mosques, inciting murderous hatred against the west and against the Jews. And the rise of sectarian Islamic Gaza first politics, with more and more politicians nervously doing the bidding of Muslims determined to make Britain adapt to Islam.
"The result of all this and more is that Britain and parts of Europe are just like the frog being boiled slowly in the pot. And I’m afraid parts of America — I’m thinking of New York — show signs of following suit.
"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.
"So is it all over? Absolutely not. Much can be done against these enemies of civilisation but only if one crucial thing is understood.
"These evil forces are strong only because their victims, in Britain, Europe and America, are weak. And they’re weak because they will not do what it takes to defend themselves.
"Iran is not strong. But America’s many powerful weapons count for nothing if it won’t use them. If America won’t commit itself to take the pain involved in fighting for its way of life, then Iran wins.
"America won’t defend itself properly because it doesn’t understand that, when it has an enemy as with the Iranian regime that believes God is instructing it to destroy America and the Jews, any negotiation is viewed as weakness and a way to manipulate America into surrender.
"To defeat Iran, America needs to end all negotiation and fight, through blockades or kinetic war or boots on the ground wherever necessary.
"Britain and Europe could themselves fight back by ending immigration from the most troubling areas in the Muslim world, banning the Muslim Brotherhood and sharia courts, and jailing or deporting hate preachers in mosques.
"Diaspora Jews should be able fight back by first stopping going on about antisemitism. They should instead start telling essential truths that are never told. For example, that Palestinian identity is a scam that was invented purely to exterminate Israel and steal the Jews’ own history in the land from them.
"They should be telling the west that everything Israel does is in accordance with international law. They should be saying it is the Palestinian Arabs who are the would-be colonisers, and that Zionism was the greatest anti-colonialism movement of the 20th century.
"And they should also start telling Americans in terms that the war against Iran is a war to defend the west, and that they all in America depend on Israel to keep them safe — in America.
"Since October 7, Israel has fought like a lion.
"Its soldiers do so because they are fighting for their people, which they love. Because they are bound in blood and tears to their history, to their culture, and to the generations who came before them and fought and died to keep the Jewish people alive.
"Israel pays the heaviest possible price of defending itself because its people are determined to keep their nation alive. Their identity, their love of their culture, their history and their people gives them idealism, courage and hope.
"Since October 7, the Israelis have returned to their historic Jewish destiny as a heroic warrior nation. Diaspora Jews themselves need to identify as part of that warrior nation, or else they will largely disappear.
"Britain and Europe will not survive their cultural death-wish. This week, I was horrified to see, America moved alarmingly to join them.
"President Trump has not escaped the Iranian trap, as I think some of his comments today indicate he is well aware. Either he fights to defeat the regime or America is finished as a force to defend civilisation.
"Israel will not allow Iran to get the bomb. If necessary, it will fight Iran alone.
"We Jews believe our historic mission is to be a light unto the nations. Israel now can be that light by showing America, Britain and Europe how to fight, what it takes to fight and therefore how to survive and to live.
I"srael will survive because Israel will do whatever to takes to defend itself: the heroic warrior nation defending the whole civilised world. This is the Jewish moment. Am yisroel chai (the people of Israel lives)."
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