Why President Herzog’s visit matters now

This article is part of a debate. It responds to Why Herzog’s visit is a bad idea for Australian Jews by Nomi Kaltmann.

As a co-founder of Project A, a grassroots advocacy organisation formed in the aftermath of October 7, I recognise the fear and exhaustion that sit at the heart of Nomi Kaltman’s piece, particularly in the shadow of the Bondi Beach massacre. Our community is grieving. We are depleted. Many of us are still trying to make sense of what we have lived through. On that much, there is no disagreement.

Where I part company is with the conclusion Nomi draws from that reality. In my view, it misreads both the nature of the problem we are confronting and the significance of President Isaac Herzog’s upcoming visit to Australia.

The surge in antisemitism we have seen over the past year did not appear out of nowhere. But nor did it arise because Jews suddenly became more visible, or because our connection to Israel was newly expressed. Alongside legitimate debate about Middle East politics, something far more corrosive has taken hold: a form of discourse that no longer confines itself to criticism of Israeli government policy, but instead questions Israel’s very legitimacy. This is not a normal political argument. It creates a climate in which Jews are singled out and uniquely delegitimised.

Antisemitism does not emerge simply because Jewish people are publicly associated with Israel. It emerges when that association is treated as inherently suspect — when the Jewish connection to Israel is framed not as a natural expression of identity, history or peoplehood, but as something morally tainted, something that must be explained away or kept out of sight.