The fundamental precepts of international law are reflected in the preamble to the UN Charter, which calls upon nations to practise tolerance and live together as good neighbours, to unite in maintaining peace and security, to refrain from threats and ensure that armed force shall not be used. The character of a democratic society is reflected in its elected representatives, those individuals who hold office to serve the people.
Our elected representatives have a responsibility to set an example of respectful and dignified conduct on the world stage. Yet in today’s world, we see the elected leaders of Western nations, like Trump and Netanyahu, behaving in ways that betray the spirit and the letter of international law, with barely any opposition or condemnation from their colleagues or the masses that elect them.
We have fallen a long way short of the hopes and aspirations of the generation that survived the last great war and it looks like we’re headed for another lesson in the cost of unbridled hubris and contempt for the other. Saddled as we are with hopelessly inadequate leadership in the West, let’s hope their impending defeat will be swift, certain and complete.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
