Latest news with #KGB
New York Post
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Keri Russell admits she's ‘still not sure' she wants to be an actress but ‘really loves' her job right now
Keri Russell creates magic on ordinary days. But that doesn't mean she's too tethered to the job title actress. In fact, Russell, 49, recently revealed how she views her career in Hollywood. 'I didn't grow up desperate to be an actress,' the star said while at the Hollywood Reporter's Drama Actress Roundtable. 'I'm still not sure I want to be. But I really love my job right now. There are a lot of things that are still embarrassing to me. I'm not a performer at ease.' Advertisement 8 Dame Helen Mirren, Kathy Bates, Niecy Nash-Betts, Parker Posey, Keri Russell and Cristin Milioti. Beau Grealy for 'The Hollywood Reporter' 8 Keri Russell for The Hollywood Reporter. Beau Grealy @beaugrealy However, when it comes to Russell's partner of nine years, Matthew Rhys, he's all in for his craft. Advertisement '[With] Matthew, for instance, I'll say, 'What are you doing this week?' And he'll go, 'Oh, I'm just going to do this play reading. I haven't done a German or Russian accent in a while and I just want to try it out,'' she revealed. 'That's my nightmare! I would f–king die. I don't want to f–king do that in front of strangers! For me, there's a real push-pull. I still have to overcome the obstacle of being nervous, but this version of TV that we're in works for me.' Russell rose to fame while starring in the drama series 'Felicity' from 1998 to 2002. 8 The Hollywood Reporter shoot. Beau Grealy @beaugrealy 8 Keri Russell in 'The Diplomat.' ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection Advertisement On the show, the actress played Felicity Porter, who discovers what life is really like after graduating high school, opposite Scott Speedman and Scott Foley. When the series wrapped, Russell left Los Angeles for New York and never moved back. 'I like my regular life,' she confessed at the roundtable. 'It's always such a funny thing when you see any big, super famous movie star. We've all worked with those people. I think [about how] they can't even go outside. They don't know what it's like to be a real person. They don't get their own coffee. They don't do their own laundry.' 'How do they play a real person? I don't want to talk shit too much about acting. I am completely married to the adventure of it, and that's what I'm in it for,' Russell added. 'I love to [shoot] in some strange city — it could be Paris or some little Southern town — and learn the city, meet new people and find my little thing.' 8 Keri Russell in 'August Rush' in 2007. ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Advertisement 8 Keri Russell in 'Cocaine Bear.' ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection 'Felicity' went on to win her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 1999. Over the years, the 'Waitress' alum has had a slew of iconic roles. From 2013 to 2018, Russell played KGB spy Elizabeth Jennings opposite Rhys, 50, as her on-screen husband and fellow KGB spy, Phillip on the FX series 'The Americans.' It was also on that drama, that her romance with the 'Burnt' actor began. 8 Keri Russell, Edward Norton in the 2009 film 'Leaves of Grass.' First Look International/Courtesy Everett Collection Now Russell stars on Netflix's 'The Diplomat,' with its third season set to premiere in the fall. Although she's worked in a variety of genres over the years, the Hollywood vet can't help but look back at typecasting that went on in the early days. As she put it, 'I went through a phase where it was just a nice pregnant mom. That was a Keri Russell type.' Advertisement 8 Keri Russell attends the European premiere of 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.'for Disney Which felt like almost every other role for Russell. 'A lot of times,' she reiterated. 'A lot.'
Telegraph
2 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
The KGB man who betrayed the USSR and smuggled secrets to Britain
Vasily Mitrokhin, subject of an intriguing new biography by the security expert Gordon Corera, was the KGB archivist put in charge of moving the entire foreign intelligence archive from its traditional location in the centre of Moscow to a modern Finnish-designed building at Yasenevo just beyond the outer ring road. On his 60th birthday in 1982, he was given a commemorative certificate to celebrate the exemplary efficiency with which he had managed the move. In reality, as The Spy in the Archive explains, Mitrokhin had spent more than a decade organising the biggest breach of security in the history of Soviet intelligence. Since he was personally responsible for certifying the safe arrival of all KGB files sent to Yasenevo, he secretly took notes on those he judged most important and smuggled them out. Among Mitrokhin's smuggled notes was much detail on intelligence penetration of the Solidarity movement, which played a central role in ending Communist rule in Poland. Corera argues persuasively that the horrors discovered by Mitrokhin in the KGB archives had 'turned him first into a dissident and then a spy, a man determined to expose the truth about the dark forces that had subverted Russia'. Mitrokhin first became a major British news story almost 30 years ago. In 1999, he and I published The Mitrokhin Archive, a book-length study of the materials he had smuggled to Britain. It made waves around the world. The Sunday Telegraph called it 'headline news'. Western intelligence agencies agreed: the FBI called the archive 'the most complete and extensive intelligence ever received from any source'. I first met Mitrokhin on October 17 1995, when I was summoned out of the blue to the London headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service (better known as SIS or MI6) to be briefed privately on one of the most extraordinary intelligence coups of modern times. Mitrokhin had no interest in talking about his own adventures and intelligence operations. Instead, his overriding aim was to expose the 'filth', as he called it, of KGB operations. As an ardent balletomane, to give one instance, he viewed with peculiar loathing a file in 1961 proposing an operation to break the legs of the defector Rudolf Nureyev. My first meeting with Mitrokhin's family was at a private lunch in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where I'm a fellow. After lunch we walked along the Backs to visit Trinity and Trinity Hall, the colleges of the KGB's best known Cambridge recruits, the 'Magnificent Five' – Maclean, Burgess, Philby, Blunt and Cairncross – some of whose files Mitrokhin had read. Mitrokhin had long ago mastered the art of being inconspicuous. The friends and colleagues whom we met walking around Cambridge didn't give him a second glance. Mitrokhin could be difficult as well as inspiring to deal with. A reminder of this came in Corera's book when I encountered the declassified text, discovered by Corera in American archives, of a talk I was invited to give in 2000 in the CIA Central Auditorium ('the Bubble') on my experience of working with the ex-Soviet man: 'Only a tiny minority of difficult people are heroes. But a surprisingly large proportion of heroes are really difficult people. Mitrokhin is a really difficult person, but he is also a hero.' Mitrokhin complained that sensationalist media publicity which followed the publication of our book had cheapened what had become his life's work. The British pro-Soviet spy whom Mitrokhin identified for the first time, 87-year-old Melita Norwood, had been treated by much of the media almost as a folk hero – 'the Spy Who Came In From the Co-op', the supermarket where for ideological reasons she did most of her shopping. Mitrokhin was not amused and annoyed that others were. Corera never met Mitrokhin. The Spy in the Archive explains better than ever before, however, how the Archive ended up in Cambridge. On that subject, though Mitrokhin and I wrote two books together, I have learned more from Corera. In March 1992, after unsuccessfully trying to contact the CIA, Mitrokhin took samples of his archive to the British embassy in Vilnius, which put him in touch with SIS. Later that year, on the 75th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, an SIS-led operation brought him, his family and his archive to Britain. Remaining inconspicuous was crucial to Mitrokhin's escape: 'I didn't stand out in any way. I didn't reach for the stars. I just did my job, like all the other Soviet citizens who worked for the system.' The Mitrokhins arrived at Gatwick Airport on November 7 1992 – the 75th anniversary of the Bolshevik seizure of power. When the contents of Mitrokhin's huge unauthorised cache entered the public domain in 1999, they undercut the plans of the KGB's successor agency, the SVR. Its leadership had been hoping to publish a distorted selection of the Soviet-era archives, in order to furnish a more positive image of the KGB. During the 1990s, for example, the SVR released four successive tranches of the bulky multi-volume file on Philby, the USSR's most famous British agent. But in order to preserve both Philby's heroic image and the reputation of Russian foreign intelligence, Yasenevo had been careful not to release the record of Philby's final weeks as head of MI6 in the USA, the climax of his career as a Soviet spy: he fell out with his case officer, who was recalled to Moscow in disgrace. Mitrokhin's notes on the officially banned parts of Philby's file reveal this farcical episode for the first time. They also reveal that Philby and his fellow Cambridge moles, Burgess and Maclean, together supplied their Soviet case officers with a total of over 20,000 'valuable' British classified documents. Most of the files in the Mitrokhin Archive are now open to researchers at Churchill College, Cambridge. Their geographic range is so large that the only West European countries omitted from them are the pocket states of Andorra, Liechtenstein and Monaco. What is most remarkable, perhaps, is that they survive at all. They put me in mind of Mikhail Bulgakov, to my mind the greatest writer of the Soviet era, whose widow had to help him out of bed one last time in 1940, just before his death, so that he could satisfy himself that his unpublished masterpiece, The Master and Margarita, was safe in its hiding place. It was, and it survived, to be published a quarter of a century later. There must be other major documents of the Soviet era that have mouldered away in forgotten places. Without the perilous journey that Corera describes so well, the Mitrokhin Archive might have been one of them.
New York Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Douglas Murray: Putin's playbook is the same a quarter-century later — peace talks are pointless
President George W. Bush famously underestimated Vladimir Putin. Asked about his impressions of the Russian president after a brief meeting in 2001, the then-US president claimed that he had 'looked into Putin's eyes' and 'saw his soul.' It is odd that Bush imagined he had some mystical ability to divine the soul of his Russian counterpart. His secretary of state, Colin Powell, had a different reaction. Powell said that he, too, had looked into Putin's eyes 'and I saw the KGB.' Almost a quarter of a century has passed since then. US presidents have come and gone. But Putin remains, still perplexing his US counterparts. Bush found out what was behind Putin's eyes a little too late. Toward the end of Bush's second term, in 2008, Putin's Russia invaded the neighboring country of Georgia. Although Putin didn't get everything he wanted from that conflict, his brutal invasion did allow him to purge Georgians from South Ossetia and Abkhazia and install Russian forces in those regions. Lesson of history It was a relatively small war, but one that many people in the West seem to have forgotten. Ever since Putin repeated his Georgian maneuver on a much grander scale in Ukraine in 2022, there are still people who like to pretend that Ukraine is all that Vladimir Putin wants. To think this is to repeat a historic mistake. In general you can weigh up world leaders in two ways: what they say, and what they do. Putin is by turns open and sphinx-like about what he wants. Speaking to the Russian people, he can be explicit about the expansion he wants — including the reconstruction of the Soviet Empire. To others he can play a subtler game, bamboozling ignorant foreign interviewers and running rings around them. But it is by his actions that you can really know Putin. And just consider his actions lately. Russian President Vladimir Putin, listens to Akie Abe, the widow of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, during a meeting at the Kremlin, May 29, 2025, in Moscow, Russia. This week he ordered some of the largest aerial assaults to date on the people of Ukraine. President Trump, who believed that he was in the middle of a cease-fire negotiation with the Russian president, finally seemed to have lost patience. 'Absolutely crazy' was among the things that Trump labeled Putin's latest assault on his neighbor. Putin's spokesman responded by dismissing Trump's comments as 'emotional.' But Trump is right to be angry about what Putin is doing. Because at the same time as dragging out negotiations — postponing meetings, reneging on promises — he is deliberately dragging out the war that he started. Men put flowers at a new monument to former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at Taganskaya Metro station, May 15, 2025, in Moscow, Russia. Getty Images And there are few signs that he is ready to stop that war anytime soon. In the past three years he has restructured the whole Russian economy onto a wartime footing. With arms production on overdrive and billions of dollars being spent on the wartime economy, he has few reasons to stop the war even if he wanted to. Russia is good at sitting out long conflicts, and its people are used to hardship. Compare that to the Western powers who say they want to stand up to Putin. Trump has rightly insisted that this country's European allies step up to the moment and increase their share of defense spending. He is absolutely right in that — and his pressure is already having positive results. Germany's mistake When Angela Merkel was chancellor of Germany, she made a set of catastrophic policy decisions relating to Russia. Not least was her enthusiasm for importing cheap Russian gas through the Nord Stream 2 project. Worse was that during her chancellorship, Germany's defense spending dropped to just 1% of GDP. Today, since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany has realized that it is going to have to step up. Under pressure from Trump, Chancellor Friedrich Merz is promising to up his country's defense spending to 5% of GDP. Which is double the baseline spending commitment expected of NATO members. But the question of when that military spending will turn into military reality is another question. In reality we might all be dead of natural causes before Germany manages to increase its arms production and army recruitment processes. Putin knows that. He knows that with a US which doesn't threaten him, and a Europe that can't get its act together, the cards are largely in his hands. It is another reason why it seems that he can afford himself little treats, as well as monumental snubs. The snubs include his repeated claims that he is committed to peace while bombing the hell out of Ukraine. The little treats include some very knowing nods to the Soviet past. This week a new monument was unveiled in the Moscow subway system. But the new statue was of an old leader. It is an ugly Soviet frieze-like monument of Joseph Stalin surrounded by statues of adoring works and children. Flowers were placed on the monument shortly after it was unveiled. The sculpture tells its own tale. It is part of a concerted effort by Putin and his regime to rehabilitate the Soviet dictator who was responsible for more deaths and misery than any other Russian leader. As well as being responsible for the deaths of millions of his own countrymen, Stalin stands out as one of the most blood-thirsty, cunning and expansionist leaders in Russian history. Among some serious competition. Dreams of empire So why would the authorities in Moscow go back to celebrating him now? Because Russia is on a war footing, and every stop is being pulled out to persuade the Russian people of the virtue of that war. Many Russians still revere Stalin — in spite of the gulags and purges — because he helped Russia get through and help win the Second World War. Putin wants to draw on those same Russian reserves. And he wants to persuade his people that his war in Ukraine is absolutely similar to Stalin's war against the Nazis. He is drawing on the deepest and darkest reserves that he can in order to keep his war in motion. It is up to the West to decide whether the darkness that Vladimir Putin draws on is something we should just observe. Or a force that we can deter.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Trump And Putin's Relationship Is On The Rocks. We Asked A Couples Therapist To Weigh In.
Historically, President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin have enjoyed a very special relationship ― at least if you're viewing it through Trump's perspective. As far back as 2013, Trump was envisioning a friendship with the Russian authoritarian leader, whose allegiance to Trump has proved more ambiguous through the years. 'Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow — if so, will he become my new best friend?' Trump, the beauty pageant's then-owner, tweeted in June 2013. Later, Trump praised Putin as 'a big hero in Russia' and 'a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond.' (CNN has a more exhaustive list of Trump's effusive remarks about Putin, if you're into that sort of thing) Putin has spoken admiringly of Trump here and there, including a compliment about Trump behaving like a 'real man' after an assassination attempt last year. But many, including former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, believe Putin sees Trump as 'an easy mark' on the global stage. 'As a former KGB agent, Putin knows exactly how to manipulate him,' Bolton told the Kyiv Independent in March. (Of course, all of this is complicated by multiple investigations that have documented Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which Trump won. Putin has denied any tampering.) That very brief history brings us to the current day: Nearly four months into his second term, Trump's arguably one-sided bromance with Putin has apparently soured. Trump has become increasingly disillusioned with his political BFF as Putin continues to refuse to negotiate a ceasefire with Ukraine. 'I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP!' Trump wrote in a widely mocked Truth Social post last month. On Sunday, after Putin launched the largest aerial attack of Moscow's three-year full-scale war on Ukraine, Trump again criticized the Russian leader. 'I've always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I'm not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever.' Then came Putin's response, which couldn't have gone over well with Trump. Trump seemed to be experiencing 'emotional overload,' the Kremlin mused ― the geopolitical equivalent of telling your wife she sounds crazy in the middle of an argument. What's going on with these two? Is the honeymoon stage over? Was there ever much of a bromance to begin with? To untangle all of this, we reached out to Tracy Ross, a couples therapist in New York City, who characterized Trump and Putin as very much a toxic couple. For years, Trump unhealthily idealized and even seemed to aspire to be like the Russian strongman leader, Ross said. It didn't seem to register for Trump that the relationship was unrequited. 'He seemed to exhibit denial in order to maintain his version of who Putin is and what their relationship was,' she said. 'Trump acted like someone with blinders on – rose-colored glasses, defending Putin's intentions and reasoning.' The way he continuously expresses alignment with Putin's positions — even making the audacious claim that Ukraine started the war ― mirrors an unhealthy relationship dynamic (not to mention, puts the U.S. at risk). 'The stakes are different but the dynamics are similar,' Ross said. 'In a toxic or unhealthy relationship dynamic, one person ignores, justifies or reasons away the behavior of the other that is damaging and even destructive.' Trump held tightly to his trumped-up, idealized version of Putin because he believed he was equally admired and respected by the other man, and that his loyalty to would allow him to influence Putin's actions. That doesn't seem to be the case, which may come as a surprise to Trump, but not to outsiders, which — again — mirrors an unhealthy relationship dynamic 'when the world sees what you don't because you are too far in it, or invested in your version until something breaks through the denial,' Ross said. While it does appear that Trump is finally waking up when it comes to all things Vlads, the tone he's taking lately is the opposite of strong or statesmanly. Those Truth Social posts speak to Trump's insecurity and need for approval and validation. 'The 'Vladimir, STOP!' statement is oddly childish and groveling,' Ross said. 'It's the way you would speak to someone you are very familiar with and close to. He's trying to express his disapproval and yet hoping to maintain the perceived relationship, the emotional attachment he has to Putin.' It won't be effective, because Putin doesn't need the approval and validation the way Trump does, Ross said. The Kremlin's 'emotional overload' comment is a classic deflective response. It's textbook gaslighting, but then again, so was Trump calling his buddy 'absolutely CRAZY' earlier this week. 'Neither one is taking any accountability or trying to gain clarity,' Ross said. 'If this were a therapy setting, we would work on being interested in how they are impacting one another, trying to get them each to take responsibility instead of escalating, and trying to find resolution instead of upping the ante and continuing to place blame,' she explained. In a marriage, these kinds of petty and small interactions would only lead to more fission. In a geopolitical bromance, the same could be said ― but then it wasn't much of a bromance to begin with. 'Friendship requires reciprocity, taking each others' feelings and points of view into account, a back and forth, a give and take, and mutual respect and regard,' she said. The Trump-Putin rapport always felt asymmetrical and politically imbalanced, with Putin gripping the lion's share of the power. 'Trump often praised or defended Putin, while Putin remained measured or even condescending. There was admiration but it was one-sided,' Ross said. 'Given that this was more of a fantasy bond than an actual bond, a friendship reconciliation is unlikely to happen.' Trump's Post About Taylor Swift Is So Immature, We Needed Child Psychologists To Explain Trump And Putin's Public Dispute 'Could Be The End Of Civilization,' Radio Host Says Trump Brags About Shielding Putin, And It's Not Going Over Well On Social Media
The Advertiser
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Advertiser
Dear Don, you've been conned and all the whole world can see it
This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to Dear Donald, It's been a while but having seen you on the news the other night, I had to reach out. It must be hard realising the person you thought you knew and trusted has been stringing you along the whole time. We saw the anguish on your face, when returning to Washington from your golfing weekend you spoke to the media on the tarmac before boarding your beat-up, old presidential jet. You looked confused and angry. What the hell happened? you asked. You'd known him for years, you'd liked him, but now he'd gone crazy, firing rockets into cities, killing innocent people. That was something you didn't like. And like anyone who'd been scammed, you revealed something we'd not seen from you before - a hint of embarrassment. How could you have been so naive? Oh, Donald, we tried so hard to warn you. In your first term, when you'd cosied up to Vlad and to Kim Jong Un, we knew you'd fallen in with a bad crowd. We saw you soaking in their reflected strength, seeing a version of yourself in their power, wanting to be like them. At the 2018 Helsinki press conference, as you stood alongside Putin, you told a stunned world that you'd asked the Russian president if his country had interfered in the 2016 election and he denied it and you believed him. Donald, Donald, Donald, we all thought, of course he'd deny it. He's a former KGB officer who made a career of convincing East Germans to do the dirty work of the Kremlin and rat on their compatriots. But you took him at his word, just as you have in your second term when you thought he was serious about settling the Ukraine war in terms acceptable to both sides. That dawning you'd fallen victim to the grift - seen by all on that tarmac the other day - must have been hard for someone like you. And to rub salt into your wound, the Kremlin accused you of being emotional after your outburst. How it must sting to be stung. You're going through what the rest of us experienced very early in childhood. That moment of hard clarity when we realised we weren't the centre of the universe, nor the smartest person in it. You're not alone, Donald. It's well known victims of scams feel acute embarrassment. Falling for a scam can shake the beliefs we hold about ourselves and others. Not that we expect you to change a lifetime of pathological self-belief. You'll probably just blame Joe Biden or Taylor Swift in a blizzard of late night tweetrums. But we all saw it, Donald. That moment of doubt when you realised you'd been outsmarted by the autocrat you'd been warned about. You appeared foolish, jilted and out of your depth. It reminded me of that occasion in the early 1990s when you held up a dinner cruise in Manhattan, arriving late and inappropriately dressed in a velour leisure suit along with your then wife. I stood nearby and watched her curse you for your foolishness and the embarrassment you'd caused her. For being late. For your fashion choices. Tell me, Donald. Somewhere deep down, are you cursing yourself for trusting Putin? For making that bold claim before you were elected that you'd end the war he started in a day? Yours, The Echidna. HAVE YOUR SAY: Was there ever a chance Donald Trump could broker a deal to end the Ukraine war? Is there some poetic justice in Trump being conned by Putin into believing the Kremlin genuinely wanted peace? Has the US been weakened by Trump's gullibility? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - Nationals Leader David Littleproud has declared that his party's commitment to Australia's net-zero 2050 target will be reviewed, while saying he is close to reaching agreement with Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to re-form the Coalition. - More than three weeks after the federal election, the final Senate results are in for Tasmania. Jacqui Lambie has been re-elected, while Richard Colbeck avoided making the Liberals' horrible election result worse by holding on to his seat. - Whistleblower Richard Boyle has been hailed a "superhero" after striking a plea deal under which he will avoid jail. The 49-year-old has admitted to four criminal charges linked to his exposure of unethical debt recovery practices at the Australian Taxation Office. THEY SAID IT: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." - Randall Terry YOU SAID IT: John's kept awake at night by the ghosts of cruelty - from the Holocaust and from the recent suffering in Gaza. "Thank you for writing this," writes Helen. "You are exactly right to align the horrors of the Nazi atrocities against the Jewish people with the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians in Gaza. Day after day I think, 'How could it get worse?' Then it does. These child killings are inflicted. Yes, these incidents haunt me and I am powerless to help the starving and maimed children." Helen W writes: "Yes John, I certainly believe the Israeli government should face an international court to answer charges of war crimes. Whether they ever will is a different matter. I belong to a post run by members of the Israeli Defence Force and former members thereof. They, having seen and participated in the very genocide that is occurring in Gaza, are endeavouring to tell the world the truth. They are also trying to let the world know that many Israelis, including those in the IDF, abhor with what is happening in Gaza." "All war contains war crimes and this one in Israel-Palestine is no exception," writes Derek. "I wish the UN could somehow become a lot stronger and prevent this sort of misery ever happening again. I detest war and these days we should all be looking towards a united world but that still seems like a dream with so many destructive vested interests in the world. Surely the time has come for the world to unite and finally prevent this destructive madness ever happening again. And yes, I've always been a dreamer." Sue writes: "Right to the point, John. This, like the Holocaust and many other horrific situations through history, is something that we should not forget, but who would, indeed who is in a position to, sit in that court? At the end of a war in which hatred of Jews played a significant role, politicians created the state of Israel in a location which had historical and significant differences with the Jewish people and their religion - surely a recipe for disaster!" Michael writes: "A better solution would be for the Hamas leaders (including their Hezbollah mates) and the Israeli leaders to be in the front of their troops and lead them into battle, like the pharaohs and kings of old. It might solve the issues quickly if they become the first casualties. Trouble is, the Hamas leaders are living it up in Qatar, and Netanyahu is ignoring the home protests about his actions." "The IDF bear responsibility, too," writes Phil. "'Just following orders' is not a defence against war crimes." Phil C writes: "I could not dwell on the tragedy that befell Dr. Alaa al-Najjar. To ward off the black dog, I am compelled to avert my eyes, heart, and mind from such unspeakable tragedy. The common conflation of anti-genocide with anti-semitism is an obscene ruse. Netanyahu is a war criminal, and the civilised world need to stop him now!"" "You said it so well for us all, John," writes Linda. "Words fail me on the idiocy and cruelty of fellow humans. Yes, they should both be subject to an international court for war crimes. Thank you, and Garry, for your ongoing articles in Echidna." Michelle writes: "Thank you for your piece on the horrors of genocide, historically, and today in Gaza. The collective memory of 80 years ago is diminishing as new generations have failed to learn the lessons of the past. I am not a religious Jew, and very proud of my heritage, My mother went to school in Palestine, my grandparents lived and worked alongside Palestinians. Like most Jews my family lost many members to the gas chambers, I never forget." Paul writes: "It's hard to compare the horrors of the Nazi genocide and the Gaza conflict. The Nazis deliberately rounded up people of specific groups and murdered them. Most of the deaths of innocents in the Gaza conflict are not due to their deliberate targeting by the Israelis. We live in a very safe nation - it is hard for most of us to know what it would be like to have a state led by a terrorist group living on our border, that constantly fires missiles into our territory and kidnaps and kills our citizens. We would probably demand military action ,too. And once engaged, and the enemy won't surrender, do you disengage, let the terrorists win and let the terrorism resume? It's hard to know." "Glad to see your newsletter so strong on the Gaza Genocide," writes Marie. "We must not forget what is happening in the West Bank as well. Australia needs to get aligned with Canada, France and the UK to exert pressure on the pariah state of Israel." Irene writes: "The Gaza war should end now. The world should condemn both sides. Both sides should answer and pay for their appalling crimes against humanity. Humanity should take the blame for allowing such mass atrocities." Amanda writes: "Justice needs to be brought to the war criminals on all sides of the Israel/Gaza war. With two friends from Australia we were caught up in a protest in Istanbul calling for the end to the Gaza war- we stood together and we cried with the women, children and men who walked the streets that day, thousands of them. We didn't feel anything other than their solidarity towards us which was made clear through gestures across the language barrier." "The events in Gaza are atrocious," writes Brian. "And so were the actions of Hamas leading up to this war. And I continue to wonder why Hamas simply will not hand back the Israeli hostages and plead for peace. Nor are Hamas's backers in Iran demanding this. Obviously, the welfare of the Palestinian people means less to Hamas and Iran than their ideologies." This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to Dear Donald, It's been a while but having seen you on the news the other night, I had to reach out. It must be hard realising the person you thought you knew and trusted has been stringing you along the whole time. We saw the anguish on your face, when returning to Washington from your golfing weekend you spoke to the media on the tarmac before boarding your beat-up, old presidential jet. You looked confused and angry. What the hell happened? you asked. You'd known him for years, you'd liked him, but now he'd gone crazy, firing rockets into cities, killing innocent people. That was something you didn't like. And like anyone who'd been scammed, you revealed something we'd not seen from you before - a hint of embarrassment. How could you have been so naive? Oh, Donald, we tried so hard to warn you. In your first term, when you'd cosied up to Vlad and to Kim Jong Un, we knew you'd fallen in with a bad crowd. We saw you soaking in their reflected strength, seeing a version of yourself in their power, wanting to be like them. At the 2018 Helsinki press conference, as you stood alongside Putin, you told a stunned world that you'd asked the Russian president if his country had interfered in the 2016 election and he denied it and you believed him. Donald, Donald, Donald, we all thought, of course he'd deny it. He's a former KGB officer who made a career of convincing East Germans to do the dirty work of the Kremlin and rat on their compatriots. But you took him at his word, just as you have in your second term when you thought he was serious about settling the Ukraine war in terms acceptable to both sides. That dawning you'd fallen victim to the grift - seen by all on that tarmac the other day - must have been hard for someone like you. And to rub salt into your wound, the Kremlin accused you of being emotional after your outburst. How it must sting to be stung. You're going through what the rest of us experienced very early in childhood. That moment of hard clarity when we realised we weren't the centre of the universe, nor the smartest person in it. You're not alone, Donald. It's well known victims of scams feel acute embarrassment. Falling for a scam can shake the beliefs we hold about ourselves and others. Not that we expect you to change a lifetime of pathological self-belief. You'll probably just blame Joe Biden or Taylor Swift in a blizzard of late night tweetrums. But we all saw it, Donald. That moment of doubt when you realised you'd been outsmarted by the autocrat you'd been warned about. You appeared foolish, jilted and out of your depth. It reminded me of that occasion in the early 1990s when you held up a dinner cruise in Manhattan, arriving late and inappropriately dressed in a velour leisure suit along with your then wife. I stood nearby and watched her curse you for your foolishness and the embarrassment you'd caused her. For being late. For your fashion choices. Tell me, Donald. Somewhere deep down, are you cursing yourself for trusting Putin? For making that bold claim before you were elected that you'd end the war he started in a day? Yours, The Echidna. HAVE YOUR SAY: Was there ever a chance Donald Trump could broker a deal to end the Ukraine war? Is there some poetic justice in Trump being conned by Putin into believing the Kremlin genuinely wanted peace? Has the US been weakened by Trump's gullibility? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - Nationals Leader David Littleproud has declared that his party's commitment to Australia's net-zero 2050 target will be reviewed, while saying he is close to reaching agreement with Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to re-form the Coalition. - More than three weeks after the federal election, the final Senate results are in for Tasmania. Jacqui Lambie has been re-elected, while Richard Colbeck avoided making the Liberals' horrible election result worse by holding on to his seat. - Whistleblower Richard Boyle has been hailed a "superhero" after striking a plea deal under which he will avoid jail. The 49-year-old has admitted to four criminal charges linked to his exposure of unethical debt recovery practices at the Australian Taxation Office. THEY SAID IT: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." - Randall Terry YOU SAID IT: John's kept awake at night by the ghosts of cruelty - from the Holocaust and from the recent suffering in Gaza. "Thank you for writing this," writes Helen. "You are exactly right to align the horrors of the Nazi atrocities against the Jewish people with the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians in Gaza. Day after day I think, 'How could it get worse?' Then it does. These child killings are inflicted. Yes, these incidents haunt me and I am powerless to help the starving and maimed children." Helen W writes: "Yes John, I certainly believe the Israeli government should face an international court to answer charges of war crimes. Whether they ever will is a different matter. I belong to a post run by members of the Israeli Defence Force and former members thereof. They, having seen and participated in the very genocide that is occurring in Gaza, are endeavouring to tell the world the truth. They are also trying to let the world know that many Israelis, including those in the IDF, abhor with what is happening in Gaza." "All war contains war crimes and this one in Israel-Palestine is no exception," writes Derek. "I wish the UN could somehow become a lot stronger and prevent this sort of misery ever happening again. I detest war and these days we should all be looking towards a united world but that still seems like a dream with so many destructive vested interests in the world. Surely the time has come for the world to unite and finally prevent this destructive madness ever happening again. And yes, I've always been a dreamer." Sue writes: "Right to the point, John. This, like the Holocaust and many other horrific situations through history, is something that we should not forget, but who would, indeed who is in a position to, sit in that court? At the end of a war in which hatred of Jews played a significant role, politicians created the state of Israel in a location which had historical and significant differences with the Jewish people and their religion - surely a recipe for disaster!" Michael writes: "A better solution would be for the Hamas leaders (including their Hezbollah mates) and the Israeli leaders to be in the front of their troops and lead them into battle, like the pharaohs and kings of old. It might solve the issues quickly if they become the first casualties. Trouble is, the Hamas leaders are living it up in Qatar, and Netanyahu is ignoring the home protests about his actions." "The IDF bear responsibility, too," writes Phil. "'Just following orders' is not a defence against war crimes." Phil C writes: "I could not dwell on the tragedy that befell Dr. Alaa al-Najjar. To ward off the black dog, I am compelled to avert my eyes, heart, and mind from such unspeakable tragedy. The common conflation of anti-genocide with anti-semitism is an obscene ruse. Netanyahu is a war criminal, and the civilised world need to stop him now!"" "You said it so well for us all, John," writes Linda. "Words fail me on the idiocy and cruelty of fellow humans. Yes, they should both be subject to an international court for war crimes. Thank you, and Garry, for your ongoing articles in Echidna." Michelle writes: "Thank you for your piece on the horrors of genocide, historically, and today in Gaza. The collective memory of 80 years ago is diminishing as new generations have failed to learn the lessons of the past. I am not a religious Jew, and very proud of my heritage, My mother went to school in Palestine, my grandparents lived and worked alongside Palestinians. Like most Jews my family lost many members to the gas chambers, I never forget." Paul writes: "It's hard to compare the horrors of the Nazi genocide and the Gaza conflict. The Nazis deliberately rounded up people of specific groups and murdered them. Most of the deaths of innocents in the Gaza conflict are not due to their deliberate targeting by the Israelis. We live in a very safe nation - it is hard for most of us to know what it would be like to have a state led by a terrorist group living on our border, that constantly fires missiles into our territory and kidnaps and kills our citizens. We would probably demand military action ,too. And once engaged, and the enemy won't surrender, do you disengage, let the terrorists win and let the terrorism resume? It's hard to know." "Glad to see your newsletter so strong on the Gaza Genocide," writes Marie. "We must not forget what is happening in the West Bank as well. Australia needs to get aligned with Canada, France and the UK to exert pressure on the pariah state of Israel." Irene writes: "The Gaza war should end now. The world should condemn both sides. Both sides should answer and pay for their appalling crimes against humanity. Humanity should take the blame for allowing such mass atrocities." Amanda writes: "Justice needs to be brought to the war criminals on all sides of the Israel/Gaza war. With two friends from Australia we were caught up in a protest in Istanbul calling for the end to the Gaza war- we stood together and we cried with the women, children and men who walked the streets that day, thousands of them. We didn't feel anything other than their solidarity towards us which was made clear through gestures across the language barrier." "The events in Gaza are atrocious," writes Brian. "And so were the actions of Hamas leading up to this war. And I continue to wonder why Hamas simply will not hand back the Israeli hostages and plead for peace. Nor are Hamas's backers in Iran demanding this. Obviously, the welfare of the Palestinian people means less to Hamas and Iran than their ideologies." This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to Dear Donald, It's been a while but having seen you on the news the other night, I had to reach out. It must be hard realising the person you thought you knew and trusted has been stringing you along the whole time. We saw the anguish on your face, when returning to Washington from your golfing weekend you spoke to the media on the tarmac before boarding your beat-up, old presidential jet. You looked confused and angry. What the hell happened? you asked. You'd known him for years, you'd liked him, but now he'd gone crazy, firing rockets into cities, killing innocent people. That was something you didn't like. And like anyone who'd been scammed, you revealed something we'd not seen from you before - a hint of embarrassment. How could you have been so naive? Oh, Donald, we tried so hard to warn you. In your first term, when you'd cosied up to Vlad and to Kim Jong Un, we knew you'd fallen in with a bad crowd. We saw you soaking in their reflected strength, seeing a version of yourself in their power, wanting to be like them. At the 2018 Helsinki press conference, as you stood alongside Putin, you told a stunned world that you'd asked the Russian president if his country had interfered in the 2016 election and he denied it and you believed him. Donald, Donald, Donald, we all thought, of course he'd deny it. He's a former KGB officer who made a career of convincing East Germans to do the dirty work of the Kremlin and rat on their compatriots. But you took him at his word, just as you have in your second term when you thought he was serious about settling the Ukraine war in terms acceptable to both sides. That dawning you'd fallen victim to the grift - seen by all on that tarmac the other day - must have been hard for someone like you. And to rub salt into your wound, the Kremlin accused you of being emotional after your outburst. How it must sting to be stung. You're going through what the rest of us experienced very early in childhood. That moment of hard clarity when we realised we weren't the centre of the universe, nor the smartest person in it. You're not alone, Donald. It's well known victims of scams feel acute embarrassment. Falling for a scam can shake the beliefs we hold about ourselves and others. Not that we expect you to change a lifetime of pathological self-belief. You'll probably just blame Joe Biden or Taylor Swift in a blizzard of late night tweetrums. But we all saw it, Donald. That moment of doubt when you realised you'd been outsmarted by the autocrat you'd been warned about. You appeared foolish, jilted and out of your depth. It reminded me of that occasion in the early 1990s when you held up a dinner cruise in Manhattan, arriving late and inappropriately dressed in a velour leisure suit along with your then wife. I stood nearby and watched her curse you for your foolishness and the embarrassment you'd caused her. For being late. For your fashion choices. Tell me, Donald. Somewhere deep down, are you cursing yourself for trusting Putin? For making that bold claim before you were elected that you'd end the war he started in a day? Yours, The Echidna. HAVE YOUR SAY: Was there ever a chance Donald Trump could broker a deal to end the Ukraine war? Is there some poetic justice in Trump being conned by Putin into believing the Kremlin genuinely wanted peace? Has the US been weakened by Trump's gullibility? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - Nationals Leader David Littleproud has declared that his party's commitment to Australia's net-zero 2050 target will be reviewed, while saying he is close to reaching agreement with Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to re-form the Coalition. - More than three weeks after the federal election, the final Senate results are in for Tasmania. Jacqui Lambie has been re-elected, while Richard Colbeck avoided making the Liberals' horrible election result worse by holding on to his seat. - Whistleblower Richard Boyle has been hailed a "superhero" after striking a plea deal under which he will avoid jail. The 49-year-old has admitted to four criminal charges linked to his exposure of unethical debt recovery practices at the Australian Taxation Office. THEY SAID IT: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." - Randall Terry YOU SAID IT: John's kept awake at night by the ghosts of cruelty - from the Holocaust and from the recent suffering in Gaza. "Thank you for writing this," writes Helen. "You are exactly right to align the horrors of the Nazi atrocities against the Jewish people with the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians in Gaza. Day after day I think, 'How could it get worse?' Then it does. These child killings are inflicted. Yes, these incidents haunt me and I am powerless to help the starving and maimed children." Helen W writes: "Yes John, I certainly believe the Israeli government should face an international court to answer charges of war crimes. Whether they ever will is a different matter. I belong to a post run by members of the Israeli Defence Force and former members thereof. They, having seen and participated in the very genocide that is occurring in Gaza, are endeavouring to tell the world the truth. They are also trying to let the world know that many Israelis, including those in the IDF, abhor with what is happening in Gaza." "All war contains war crimes and this one in Israel-Palestine is no exception," writes Derek. "I wish the UN could somehow become a lot stronger and prevent this sort of misery ever happening again. I detest war and these days we should all be looking towards a united world but that still seems like a dream with so many destructive vested interests in the world. Surely the time has come for the world to unite and finally prevent this destructive madness ever happening again. And yes, I've always been a dreamer." Sue writes: "Right to the point, John. This, like the Holocaust and many other horrific situations through history, is something that we should not forget, but who would, indeed who is in a position to, sit in that court? At the end of a war in which hatred of Jews played a significant role, politicians created the state of Israel in a location which had historical and significant differences with the Jewish people and their religion - surely a recipe for disaster!" Michael writes: "A better solution would be for the Hamas leaders (including their Hezbollah mates) and the Israeli leaders to be in the front of their troops and lead them into battle, like the pharaohs and kings of old. It might solve the issues quickly if they become the first casualties. Trouble is, the Hamas leaders are living it up in Qatar, and Netanyahu is ignoring the home protests about his actions." "The IDF bear responsibility, too," writes Phil. "'Just following orders' is not a defence against war crimes." Phil C writes: "I could not dwell on the tragedy that befell Dr. Alaa al-Najjar. To ward off the black dog, I am compelled to avert my eyes, heart, and mind from such unspeakable tragedy. The common conflation of anti-genocide with anti-semitism is an obscene ruse. Netanyahu is a war criminal, and the civilised world need to stop him now!"" "You said it so well for us all, John," writes Linda. "Words fail me on the idiocy and cruelty of fellow humans. Yes, they should both be subject to an international court for war crimes. Thank you, and Garry, for your ongoing articles in Echidna." Michelle writes: "Thank you for your piece on the horrors of genocide, historically, and today in Gaza. The collective memory of 80 years ago is diminishing as new generations have failed to learn the lessons of the past. I am not a religious Jew, and very proud of my heritage, My mother went to school in Palestine, my grandparents lived and worked alongside Palestinians. Like most Jews my family lost many members to the gas chambers, I never forget." Paul writes: "It's hard to compare the horrors of the Nazi genocide and the Gaza conflict. The Nazis deliberately rounded up people of specific groups and murdered them. Most of the deaths of innocents in the Gaza conflict are not due to their deliberate targeting by the Israelis. We live in a very safe nation - it is hard for most of us to know what it would be like to have a state led by a terrorist group living on our border, that constantly fires missiles into our territory and kidnaps and kills our citizens. We would probably demand military action ,too. And once engaged, and the enemy won't surrender, do you disengage, let the terrorists win and let the terrorism resume? It's hard to know." "Glad to see your newsletter so strong on the Gaza Genocide," writes Marie. "We must not forget what is happening in the West Bank as well. Australia needs to get aligned with Canada, France and the UK to exert pressure on the pariah state of Israel." Irene writes: "The Gaza war should end now. The world should condemn both sides. Both sides should answer and pay for their appalling crimes against humanity. Humanity should take the blame for allowing such mass atrocities." Amanda writes: "Justice needs to be brought to the war criminals on all sides of the Israel/Gaza war. With two friends from Australia we were caught up in a protest in Istanbul calling for the end to the Gaza war- we stood together and we cried with the women, children and men who walked the streets that day, thousands of them. We didn't feel anything other than their solidarity towards us which was made clear through gestures across the language barrier." "The events in Gaza are atrocious," writes Brian. "And so were the actions of Hamas leading up to this war. And I continue to wonder why Hamas simply will not hand back the Israeli hostages and plead for peace. Nor are Hamas's backers in Iran demanding this. Obviously, the welfare of the Palestinian people means less to Hamas and Iran than their ideologies." This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to Dear Donald, It's been a while but having seen you on the news the other night, I had to reach out. It must be hard realising the person you thought you knew and trusted has been stringing you along the whole time. We saw the anguish on your face, when returning to Washington from your golfing weekend you spoke to the media on the tarmac before boarding your beat-up, old presidential jet. You looked confused and angry. What the hell happened? you asked. You'd known him for years, you'd liked him, but now he'd gone crazy, firing rockets into cities, killing innocent people. That was something you didn't like. And like anyone who'd been scammed, you revealed something we'd not seen from you before - a hint of embarrassment. How could you have been so naive? Oh, Donald, we tried so hard to warn you. In your first term, when you'd cosied up to Vlad and to Kim Jong Un, we knew you'd fallen in with a bad crowd. We saw you soaking in their reflected strength, seeing a version of yourself in their power, wanting to be like them. At the 2018 Helsinki press conference, as you stood alongside Putin, you told a stunned world that you'd asked the Russian president if his country had interfered in the 2016 election and he denied it and you believed him. Donald, Donald, Donald, we all thought, of course he'd deny it. He's a former KGB officer who made a career of convincing East Germans to do the dirty work of the Kremlin and rat on their compatriots. But you took him at his word, just as you have in your second term when you thought he was serious about settling the Ukraine war in terms acceptable to both sides. That dawning you'd fallen victim to the grift - seen by all on that tarmac the other day - must have been hard for someone like you. And to rub salt into your wound, the Kremlin accused you of being emotional after your outburst. How it must sting to be stung. You're going through what the rest of us experienced very early in childhood. That moment of hard clarity when we realised we weren't the centre of the universe, nor the smartest person in it. You're not alone, Donald. It's well known victims of scams feel acute embarrassment. Falling for a scam can shake the beliefs we hold about ourselves and others. Not that we expect you to change a lifetime of pathological self-belief. You'll probably just blame Joe Biden or Taylor Swift in a blizzard of late night tweetrums. But we all saw it, Donald. That moment of doubt when you realised you'd been outsmarted by the autocrat you'd been warned about. You appeared foolish, jilted and out of your depth. It reminded me of that occasion in the early 1990s when you held up a dinner cruise in Manhattan, arriving late and inappropriately dressed in a velour leisure suit along with your then wife. I stood nearby and watched her curse you for your foolishness and the embarrassment you'd caused her. For being late. For your fashion choices. Tell me, Donald. Somewhere deep down, are you cursing yourself for trusting Putin? For making that bold claim before you were elected that you'd end the war he started in a day? Yours, The Echidna. HAVE YOUR SAY: Was there ever a chance Donald Trump could broker a deal to end the Ukraine war? Is there some poetic justice in Trump being conned by Putin into believing the Kremlin genuinely wanted peace? Has the US been weakened by Trump's gullibility? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - Nationals Leader David Littleproud has declared that his party's commitment to Australia's net-zero 2050 target will be reviewed, while saying he is close to reaching agreement with Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to re-form the Coalition. - More than three weeks after the federal election, the final Senate results are in for Tasmania. Jacqui Lambie has been re-elected, while Richard Colbeck avoided making the Liberals' horrible election result worse by holding on to his seat. - Whistleblower Richard Boyle has been hailed a "superhero" after striking a plea deal under which he will avoid jail. The 49-year-old has admitted to four criminal charges linked to his exposure of unethical debt recovery practices at the Australian Taxation Office. THEY SAID IT: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." - Randall Terry YOU SAID IT: John's kept awake at night by the ghosts of cruelty - from the Holocaust and from the recent suffering in Gaza. "Thank you for writing this," writes Helen. "You are exactly right to align the horrors of the Nazi atrocities against the Jewish people with the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians in Gaza. Day after day I think, 'How could it get worse?' Then it does. These child killings are inflicted. Yes, these incidents haunt me and I am powerless to help the starving and maimed children." Helen W writes: "Yes John, I certainly believe the Israeli government should face an international court to answer charges of war crimes. Whether they ever will is a different matter. I belong to a post run by members of the Israeli Defence Force and former members thereof. They, having seen and participated in the very genocide that is occurring in Gaza, are endeavouring to tell the world the truth. They are also trying to let the world know that many Israelis, including those in the IDF, abhor with what is happening in Gaza." "All war contains war crimes and this one in Israel-Palestine is no exception," writes Derek. "I wish the UN could somehow become a lot stronger and prevent this sort of misery ever happening again. I detest war and these days we should all be looking towards a united world but that still seems like a dream with so many destructive vested interests in the world. Surely the time has come for the world to unite and finally prevent this destructive madness ever happening again. And yes, I've always been a dreamer." Sue writes: "Right to the point, John. This, like the Holocaust and many other horrific situations through history, is something that we should not forget, but who would, indeed who is in a position to, sit in that court? At the end of a war in which hatred of Jews played a significant role, politicians created the state of Israel in a location which had historical and significant differences with the Jewish people and their religion - surely a recipe for disaster!" Michael writes: "A better solution would be for the Hamas leaders (including their Hezbollah mates) and the Israeli leaders to be in the front of their troops and lead them into battle, like the pharaohs and kings of old. It might solve the issues quickly if they become the first casualties. Trouble is, the Hamas leaders are living it up in Qatar, and Netanyahu is ignoring the home protests about his actions." "The IDF bear responsibility, too," writes Phil. "'Just following orders' is not a defence against war crimes." Phil C writes: "I could not dwell on the tragedy that befell Dr. Alaa al-Najjar. To ward off the black dog, I am compelled to avert my eyes, heart, and mind from such unspeakable tragedy. The common conflation of anti-genocide with anti-semitism is an obscene ruse. Netanyahu is a war criminal, and the civilised world need to stop him now!"" "You said it so well for us all, John," writes Linda. "Words fail me on the idiocy and cruelty of fellow humans. Yes, they should both be subject to an international court for war crimes. Thank you, and Garry, for your ongoing articles in Echidna." Michelle writes: "Thank you for your piece on the horrors of genocide, historically, and today in Gaza. The collective memory of 80 years ago is diminishing as new generations have failed to learn the lessons of the past. I am not a religious Jew, and very proud of my heritage, My mother went to school in Palestine, my grandparents lived and worked alongside Palestinians. Like most Jews my family lost many members to the gas chambers, I never forget." Paul writes: "It's hard to compare the horrors of the Nazi genocide and the Gaza conflict. The Nazis deliberately rounded up people of specific groups and murdered them. Most of the deaths of innocents in the Gaza conflict are not due to their deliberate targeting by the Israelis. We live in a very safe nation - it is hard for most of us to know what it would be like to have a state led by a terrorist group living on our border, that constantly fires missiles into our territory and kidnaps and kills our citizens. We would probably demand military action ,too. And once engaged, and the enemy won't surrender, do you disengage, let the terrorists win and let the terrorism resume? It's hard to know." "Glad to see your newsletter so strong on the Gaza Genocide," writes Marie. "We must not forget what is happening in the West Bank as well. Australia needs to get aligned with Canada, France and the UK to exert pressure on the pariah state of Israel." Irene writes: "The Gaza war should end now. The world should condemn both sides. Both sides should answer and pay for their appalling crimes against humanity. Humanity should take the blame for allowing such mass atrocities." Amanda writes: "Justice needs to be brought to the war criminals on all sides of the Israel/Gaza war. With two friends from Australia we were caught up in a protest in Istanbul calling for the end to the Gaza war- we stood together and we cried with the women, children and men who walked the streets that day, thousands of them. We didn't feel anything other than their solidarity towards us which was made clear through gestures across the language barrier." "The events in Gaza are atrocious," writes Brian. "And so were the actions of Hamas leading up to this war. And I continue to wonder why Hamas simply will not hand back the Israeli hostages and plead for peace. Nor are Hamas's backers in Iran demanding this. Obviously, the welfare of the Palestinian people means less to Hamas and Iran than their ideologies."
