Isaac Herzog: Progressive protesters hate Israel so much they rally against its President who backs gay rights

Anti-Israel protesters who describe themselves as progressive seem to have so much hatred for the existence of the world’s only Jewish state they will clash with police to oppose the visit to Australia of someone who called for an end to violence against gays. Isaac Herzog, Israel’s President, was previously a leader of the centre-left Labour Party and during the 2010s led the Opposition against Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Government. The ceremonial head of the world’s only Jewish state is hardly a reactionary or even a conservative figure, last year becoming the first Israeli president to attend a gay pride rally in Jerusalem. In fact, he didn’t just attend the rainbow flag event. He used his position to condemn violence against gays and lesbians in Israel, where an Orthodox Jew was a decade ago convicted over a stabbing attack at Jerusalem’s gay pride rally. “I know there is violence, and we are here to eradicate it. We demand love, respect, and equality — also for the LGBTQ+ community, which is an inseparable part of Israeli society,” he said in June last year. Usually, this is the kind of figure political progressives would celebrate. Oh, except if they are from Israel. In which case, someone like this will be smeared with the accusation of genocide. Never mind what Israel had to endure on October 7, when Hamas terrorists murdered 1200 Israelis and took hundreds more hostage two years and four months ago. Any nation under attack would respond, especially with enemies that don’t want it to exist. It’s a pity those who call themselves progressive in Australia seem to have such hatred for someone who hails from the left of politics. Their own side of politics. The side of politics that is meant to be concerned with helping the powerless, including Jews confronted with anti-Semitism on a daily basis for expressing their religion and culture. The situation became so tense on Monday night that a member of the NSW Police in uniform appeared on stage asking attendees at Sydney’s TikTok Entertainment Centre to remain in the building for another half in hour, amid fears protesters had made their way to Darling Harbour. This is where President Herzog had appeared two hours earlier, addressing 7000 people at a Zionist Federation of Australia event, and giving comfort to those mourning the killing of 15 innocent people at Bondi on December 14. “The physical and emotional scars from December 14th will forever be a part of our two nations,” he told a packed auditorium amid a heavy police presence inside and outside the venue. Those among the Jewish diaspora couldn’t be left alone in peace to heal, not without a heavy police presence to deal with the keffiyeh-wearing crowd getting a train into the city on Monday afternoon. The Palestine Action Group wasn’t content with a police suggestion that they march from Sydney’s Hyde Park to Belmore Park near Central station to express their political message. This proposed route wasn’t a problem last month for those marching in support of Iranians living under the oppressive Ayatollah, where women are forced to wear hijabs and gay men are executed. But rules apparently don’t seem to apply to the anti-Israel brigade, whose 6000 demonstrators included former Australian of the Year Grace Tame chanting “globalise the intifada”. Yes, a term that describes suicide bombings in Israel but which the NSW Greens argue means “worldwide peaceful protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza”. Their mob of MPs were also part of this protest that stopped the trams from running. Those opposed to President Herzog’s visit wanted to be provocative and march from Town Hall to State Parliament House, an area in Sydney’s city centre where marching protests have been temporarily banned under new laws introduced after the Bondi massacre. Premier Chris Minns noted NSW police involved in struggles in the CBD with demonstrators were merely trying to keep protesters away from mourning members of the Jewish community. “I just want to make it clear they were caught in an impossible situation,” he told reporters on Tuesday. Those disobeying Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon’s directives included State Labor MPs from the Premier’s own right faction, Stephen Lawrence and Sarah Kaine, and the soft left’s Cameron Murphy, the son of former Federal attorney-general and High Court judge Lionel Murphy. Respecting the Labor Party’s caucus position isn’t important when you’re opposed to an Israeli dignitary visiting Australia at the invitation of a hard left faction Labor Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Someone from their side of politics is regarded as an enemy if they are from Israel, such is the level of hatred at the right of the world’s only Jewish state to exist or at least defend itself.