Meet the New Political Editor of the Jewish Chronicle

David

Congrats. Any critics would do well to note that the JC carries artilces from Mel Phillips, Jonathan Freedland and David Aaronovitch, who could hardly be lumped together in how they view politics in the UK or the Middle East.

Matthew Blott

Good luck

Pete Hoskin

Congratulations, Martin, and good luck!

Ross Burns

Congratulations, Mr Bright. Have you been working on a book while between Political Editor jobs? Well done.

blueharry

'In some circles my appointment will confirm the view that I have become a right-wing Zionist neo-con.'

No Martin, you always were.

' will, however, continue to pursue an interest in radical Islam.'

I'd call it an obsession

'My perspective will be, as ever, liberal and even-handed.'

Like when you supported the bombing of Gaza. This is beyond satire!

David Blackburn

Congratulations Martin.

Judy

Congratulations. I'm a great admirer of your work. But I do hope you'll display less prejudice towards strictly orthodox Jews--and less confidence about assuming you know what they think and why they do things than you did in your post calling on us to join you in applauding Jim Fitzpatrick for making political capital out of his arrogant assumptions about strictly observant Muslims.

Please also do bear in mind that a major reason most of the Jewish community that buys the JC does so because it may be the one place that doesn't demonize Israel/settlers/neocons and other JewsTheyDon'tLike.

Your coverage of the Jim Fitzpatrick was neither liberal nor even-handed.

If you are committed to being liberal and even-handed then it will be helpful for you to listen and find out enough to avoid demonizing or discrediting any section of the Jewish community.

Please don't assume that there's a particular section of the Jewish community that's the one that's "progressive" and can be relied on to be counted as liberal and therefore reliably right.

If you read the letters page of the JC, you'll see that there's a great deal of attempting to label either the orthodox or the strictly orthodox Jewish community and/or its rabbinate as heartless/mediaeval/barbaric/venal etc etc.

Too many of the opinion pieces in the paper do this too.

I hope you won't fall into this sort of mindlessness.

You will not be labelled as a right wing zionist neo-con. You will just be labelled a tool/lockspittle of the zionists/Mossad/the Jews. Ken Livingstone may well say "Hah! Told you so."Hope that makes you feel better.

Your hate mail will get much worse and it will be full monty anti-semitic. Ask John Mann (if you haven't already done so).

Still, I hope you enjoy and are enriched (in the cultural/spiritual sense besides whatever you're paid) by your experience at the JC.

Matthew

Have you asked Stephen Pollard about his claim (when launching a manifesto stating his core political views in 2006) that "in any recognisable form, the Left is now the enemy"? And do you feel comfortable that he doesn't think it applies to you?

Liz SA

Mazeltov Martin, You'll need it. Please don't forget there is also an orthodox religious community in the diaspora that not only gets slammed from run-of-the-mill anti Semites, but also from many Zionists too. I understand that it's unfashionable to be religious, but in order to understand the full spectrum of Jewish culture, and get some balance, I hope you'll spend some time to understand what make us tick too. Unfortunately, I can only warn you that life will probably become uncomfortable for you - after all, you already share a platform with some high-lifers on the Spectator whose opinions are dubious to say the least - and they'll be the least of your worries - but I do wish you well.

Martin Bright

I think it is important in such a charged debate to clarify my position. I did not support the bombing of Gaza, as "blueharry" claims. In fact, the opposite is the case. I did, however, question the alliances forged by some opponents of Israeli intervention in Gaza with Hamas sympathisers.

I assume "blueharry" is the same anonymous commenter as "redharry" who took a very keen interest in my work at the New Statesman.

I assume he will retract this inaccurate comment

Morus

Mazel Tov! An enlightened appointment by them and an exciting new chapter for you!

I may even subscribe...

andy c

Under Pollard, it has gone right down. I remember during Cast Lead the glorious shots of our boys manning the warships, taking the good fight to those pesky Palestinians. It reminded me of some third world propaganda rag. Garbage.

Jack R

I appreciate this item in today's 'jc.com':

"BBC backs Jeremy Bowen in bias probe"

"The BBC has confirmed that a trustee who says he has 'complete confidence' in Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen will be allowed to chair an investigation into complaints against the correspondent.

"Richard Tait, head of the corporation’s Editorial Standards Committee, will lead the case considering allegations of inaccuracy and bias.

"But on June 7, Mr Tait told Radio 4’s Feedback show: 'We made it absolutely clear that we have complete confidence in Jeremy Bowen. We have confidence in him. We have complete confidence in the BBC’s news division and in the BBC’s impartiality in this area.'”

Mr. Bright, the next time you bump into Yvonne Ridley, you don't have to be quite so polite.

We'll have you reading 'Jihadwatch',
'Atlas Shrugs' and 'New English Review' before you know it.

ISAAC

Remember the BBC woman who dared to cry when that cockroach Arafat died? Bowen and her are turncoats, who believe the bile they are served from these terrorist murderers that flow from the sewer that is the palestinians "people".

peter

On his JC Blog Stephen Pollard gives a fanatic eulogy of Baby Murdoch's Edinburgh speech with the well considered conclusion that 'all tv must be for profit'.

What a rube.

Sternly, Pollard goes on to wag a finger at the BBC, with an unspoken menace that implies its end is nigh.

This the day before the Beeb lands moer than 70% approval in a huge approval ICM survey. Its highest ever.

With an editor like this in the throne, how long before Martin topples this porky plonker and assumes the editorship for himself?

This on the day that