As Pope Benedict flies to the Holy Land, an unholy row has broken out over allegations that Israeli forces deliberately or recklessly fired on United Nations personnel and property in Gaza during January's military action against Hamas, killing staff and civilians sheltering there. The terms of this quarrel are wearily familiar. As has happened before, most notably during action against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, international allegations that Israel has wrongly conducted itself are dismissed by Israeli spokesmen. There is a strong implication that the allegations are biased, concocted by Israel's enemies, and believed only by those - too numerous to mention - who are tainted by anti-Semitism. Opinion inside Israel, and to a considerable extent Jewish opinion worldwide, continues to believe that Israeli armed forces behave little short of impeccably, under extreme provocation. Meanwhile opinion outside Israel, and among non-Jews, tends to harden the other way. This is a propaganda war Israel seems destined to lose, a loss that it has already discounted in advance. But must it be so?

The international outcry against Israel was not confined to alleged attacks on UN property, but covered all aspects of Israeli military activity against Hamas. A large proportion of the Palestinian casualties were apparently civilians. But Hamas militia often dress as civilians, do use women operatives and even children, and do sometimes deliberately mount their attacks from civilian areas. The illegality of the action of Hamas itself, including its rocket attacks on innocent Israeli citizens, is manifest. But the world expects better of Israel, a democratic country with civilised Western values. In this case, the circumstances involving UN property were more specific, and lent themselves to a more detailed and impartial investigation. The UN Security Council duly commissioned one: it found many of the allegations proved. But the Israeli Government promptly and predictably rejected those findings ...

With his organic garden at Highgrove House and his regular comments about the environment, the Prince of Wales has long been an advocate of green causes. So it came as no surprise that he raised the plight of the planet at his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican this week. The world risked "a new Dark Age", said Prince Charles, unless urgent action is taken on climate change.

He was preaching to the ...

Alistair Darling's second Budget was widely hailed as the most important in recent memory - indeed, he admitted the British economy faces its worst year since the Second World War while saying the country will have to borrow the record sum of £175 billion. The public finances are clearly under unprecedented strain from the global recession and some of the mountain of debt against Britain's name was unavoidable ...

Until now, the anarchic and unruly realm of the blogger has been seen as a somewhat surreal world remote from real life. It has at last impinged on mainstream British politics in no uncertain fashion. The malicious blogging ambitions of a couple of Labour Party zealots, one inside 10 Downing Street where the other used to work, have embarrassed the already beleaguered Prime Minister and given his political enemies ...

Celebrating Christ's death and Resurrection is a time of repentance, renewal and rebirth. This year Easter appropriately coincides with the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, with the appointment of a new Archbishop of Westminster. It is a moment for taking stock, and refreshing old commitments. The Church here has fallen below its potential, and needs boosting ...