Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, is due to arrive in Australia next Sunday. Why is a foreign Head of State asked to help heal an Australian community after an Australian tragedy?

Australia is being asked to accept something extraordinary as if it were normal.

Who invited Isaac Herzog in the first place, and why did Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese say yes? Presented to us not as diplomacy, not as geopolitics, not as a strategic signal, but as “healing”.

Before we swallow that story, one question needs to be put on the table and left there until someone answers it.

Where does this community’s allegiance align? Australia or Israel?

The visit is being sold as reassurance for Jewish Australians after the Bondi attack last December 14. And yet the reassurance on offer does not come from Australia at all.

It does not come from Australian civic leaders. It does not come from Australian law or Australian institutions. It does not come from Jewish Australian faith figures, nor even from Israeli rabbinical leaders rooted in this country and this community.

It comes instead from a foreign head of state, and that single choice does more than any speech. It quietly rewrites the relationship between citizenship, faith, and state power in Australia.

So ask the obvious questions. Who requested this visit? Who lobbied for it? Who thought it was wise to import a foreign political figure into the emotional aftermath of Bondi? And why did the Prime Minister say yes?

Why did Albanese say yes?
If the purpose is truly pastoral, then the choice makes no sense. The visitor is not a rabbi. Not a spiritual leader. Not an interfaith presence. Not a community counsellor.

He is an Israeli president. A political figure. The constitutional face of a foreign state. Politics, not pastoral care. Power, not solace.

That is the first truth we are being asked not to notice, but the second truth is even more uncomfortable.

For years, Australians have been hammered with a single instruction, delivered with the confidence of a moral rule. Judaism is a religion. Israel is a state. Zionism is a political ideology. Keep them separate. Do not conflate.

If you blur those lines, you will be accused of prejudice, sometimes fairly, sometimes strategically, but always loudly.

That instruction has been enforced through the culture. In media commentary. In parliamentary speeches. In complaints processes. In campaigns to delegitimise critics who would not repeat the approved formula with sufficient reverence.

Fine. If separation is the principle, then separation must hold when it matters most. Especially when grief is raw, and symbols do their sharpest work.

Separation is abandoned
But at the precise moment symbolism matters most, the separation is abandoned. Not by critics. Not by social media hotheads. By the state itself.

At a moment of Australian grief, it is not faith that is summoned. It is the Israeli state.

Its president is elevated as the symbolic consoler. Its presence is framed as essential to the healing of Jewish Australians.

This visit does not merely blur the line between Judaism and Israel. It erases it. Publicly. Institutionally. With government endorsement of inviting a man who, according to Labor Friends of Palestine, doesn’t pass the character test for a visa application:

1. “A person does not pass the character test if … the Minister reasonably suspects that the person has been or is involved in conduct constituting . . .  the crime of genocide, a crime against humanity, a war crime, a crime involving torture or slavery or a crime that is otherwise of serious international concern; whether or not the person, or another person, has been convicted of an offence constituted by the conduct . . . ”
   
2. “A person does not pass the character test if . . .  in the event the person were allowed to enter or to remain in Australia, there is a risk that the person would . . . incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community . . . ’ 

— Migration Act 1958, Section 501

Judaism vs Israel
You cannot spend decades demanding that Australians keep Judaism and Israel separate, then place an Israeli head of state at the centre of an Australian tragedy and expect the public to maintain the fiction.

You cannot demand absolute separation when critics speak, then collapse that separation when power needs a stage.

That is not an oversight. It is a choice, and it leads to the real debate Australia has been pushed to avoid.

If Jewish Australians are Australians of Jewish faith, then their safety, grief, and belonging are matters for Australia to address. Australian law. Australian civic leadership. Australian institutions.

Or, if faith is the organising principle, rabbis and religious leaders who actually carry pastoral authority. They are not matters for a foreign head of state. Not for an overseas government inserting itself into an Australian tragedy.

The moment a foreign political leader is presented as necessary to healing, the issue stops being faith and becomes allegiance.

And allegiance is not some abstract thing in Australia. It is demanded constantly. Migrant communities are told, again and again, that Australia comes first. That loyalty must be singular. That old countries are left behind. That this nation, its laws, its institutions, and its flag are the sole point of civic attachment.

Except here, the rules bend. Here, the separation we are warned never to breach is breached from above. Here, the state quietly endorses the idea that

Jewish identity in Australia is incomplete without Israeli political authority standing behind it.

Divisive double standard
That is why this visit is divisive. Not because Australians lack compassion. Not because antisemitism is not real. It is real, and it should be crushed without hesitation.

The division comes from the double standard. The division comes from importing a foreign political symbol into Australian grief, then scolding Australians for noticing what that symbol implies.

And once Israel is positioned as the emotional guarantor of Jewish life in Australia, the logic runs further, whether anyone likes it or not.

Why does responsibility stop at speeches? Why does it end in symbolism?

Why is the Australian taxpayer funding security, policing, protective infrastructure, and now a full diplomatic visit, while the implication being advanced is that Jewish safety here is inseparable from the Israeli state?

If Israel is to be treated as the natural guardian, then why is Australia carrying the entire material cost?

The Prime Minister has not merely allowed a diplomatic courtesy. He has endorsed a narrative. One that collapses the very separation it claims to defend.

One that institutionalises the question of allegiance while pretending the question is offensive to ask.

It is not offensive. It is civic. It is democratic. It is necessary. So ask it clearly, without malice and without fear.

Who asked for this visit? Why did the government agree? And what exactly are Australians being told, in symbols rather than words, about where allegiance is supposed to lie?

Because if the answer is Australia, this visit makes no sense.

And if the answer is Israel, Australians deserve honesty about what has just been done in their name.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived at Kokoda Station, Northern province, at the start of his state visit to Papua New Guinea.

Both Albanese and Prime Minister James Marape will meet with the locals and the Northern Provincial government before they begin their walk along the historic 96km Kokoda Trail.

Both men were “excited” with Marape saying “he was there to lend a hand to his brother PM”.

Meanwhile, the heroism of Australian soldier Private Bruce Steel Kingsbury is being remembered in advance of ANZAC Day.

Knowing his platoon would not last long with the continuous attack by the Japanese and suffering severe losses during World War Two, Private Kingsbury made the heroic decision to move against the continuous firing and attacked the enemy which cost his life on 29 August 1942.

The battle took place at Isurava, Kokoda. Where Private Kingsbury fell is a memorial which is known as “Kingsbury Rock” beside the Isurava Memorial which Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will visit for the ANZAC Dawn service.

Private Kingsbury’s sacrifice earned him a Victoria Cross. He is buried at the Bomana War Cemetery outside Port Moresby and is one of 625 Australians who were killed in action along the Kokoda track, another 1055 were wounded.

Battle for PNG
The battle to protect Papua and New Guinea, as it was known back then, took about 9000 lives and the remnants of war still remain in the jungles of PNG with more men still missing in action.

Prime ministers Marape and Albanese will walk a section of the Kokoda track to honour the shared history and enduring bond between the two nations.

“The visit of Prime Minister Albanese underscores the close relationships between our countries,” said Prime Minister Marape.

“I’ll be joining him for a walk along the Kokoda Trail.”

Albanese is set to be the first sitting prime minister to walk part of the famous 96km track.

Kevin Rudd walked the Kokoda Track in 2006 while he was opposition leader while former prime minister Scott Morrison also hiked the track in 2009 during his time as a backbench MP.

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Post-Courier newspaper today compared Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape to the infamous emperor Nero who fiddled while Rome burned over his controversial one-day Indonesian visit while facing an election in June.

“And [he] was clearly despised by his people,” the paper said in a scathing editorial headlined “Tari burns while Marape fiddles”.

“The frivolities of life abounded in his rule and perhaps, in his greatest haste, when his Rome roared into flames, the adage, ‘Nero fiddles while Rome burns’ has stuck to this day to depict his indifference to the suffering of his people.”

Often used in a critical way, the paper said, the phrase had been applied colloquially to a leader who was “simply irresponsible in the face of responsibility”.

The Post-Courier said there were many examples of this in Papua New Guinea, “none more morbid and clarified as the disappearing act of our Prime Minister James Marape yesterday”.

The newspaper was criticising Marape for taking an entourage of 71 musicians on a sightseeing tour of Jakarta across the border while his “restive electorate of Tari, significant to Papua New Guinea for its oil and gas fields, sparked and is still burning today”.

Pai police barracks torched, 1 dead
One police reservist was reported dead and three houses were torched in an attack by gunmen on the Pai Police Barracks in Tari.

“How irresponsible is that? How can a Prime Minister ignore his own scorching electorate and simply fiddle his way on an overseas trip in the face of a tough upcoming national election?” the Post-Courier asked.

“His political opponents must be fiddling in glee at the very thought of political suicide.

“But the notion of our PM ignoring a serious matter such as Tuesday’s killings and injuring of policemen in his home town of Tari by angry armed locals, and the torching of a police barracks and a settlement, is tantamount to sacrilege of the code of leadership.

“Electing instead to go on a trip is akin to the ancient testament of Nero.

“Simply foolish pride and deserting one’s responsibilities in a time of grave danger is unforgivable.”

The problem with PNG leaders was that only a handful knew and practised their responsibilities with “faithful commitment”.

Marape criticises Post-Courier
Marape retorted with a statement carried by the Sunday Bulletin Facebook page denying that he had “run away from electoral duties”. He criticised the paper for stooping “low” and comparing the “once respected” Post-Courier unflatteringly with past versions.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Zealand expects to open a two-way travel bubble with the Cook Islands in May and is planning a vaccination campaign there.

The leaders of both nations met in Auckland today, with New Zealand confirming $20 million in additional support for the country this financial year.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown is the first international leader to be officially welcomed into New Zealand since the pandemic began.

Speaking to media after the meeting, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the two discussed the road map for quarantine-free travel.

She said the vaccination campaign – also planned to begin in May – will pave the way.

“There has been significant work with preparedness and we are currently working in earnest towards a May commencement. The Director-General of Health has also advised that beginning vaccination will add to the safe opening of quarantine-free travel.”

Brown has said the Cook Islands’ updated contact tracing app, which is compatible with the New Zealand Covid Tracer app, is also an essential step on the path to two-way quarantine-free travel.

$20m ‘sweetener’
In the meantime, New Zealand is offering the $20 million sweetener from a “recently reprioritised” Development Assistant budget.

A one-way travel bubble between Rarotonga and New Zealand has been in place since the end of January allowing quarantine-free travel from the Cook Islands to New Zealand.

At least 300 Cook Islanders have arrived in New Zealand to look for work since the one-way travel arrangement came into effect and residents are also travelling to New Zealand for medical treatments they can’t access at home.

There is pressure for officials to move faster on a two-way travel bubble, or risk losing a significant chunk of the Cook Islands workforce to New Zealand.

Brown told Ardern about the “significant issues” facing his covid-free, but also tourist-free, country.

“For a country that is totally reliant on tourism – up to 70 percent on GDP – this has had a significant impact on our economy, to the state it’s declined 20 percent in the time New Zealand’s economy has declined by 2.9 percent of its GDP,” he said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Ian Kaukui in Honiara

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has arrived in Solomon Islands on a two-day state visit.

His trip to Honiara marks his first overseas trip since being elected in the May 18 federal election.

For Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, Morrison is his first overseas counterpart to officially visit him.

READ MORE: Morrison receives warm welcome in Solomons as he pushes Pacific ‘step-up’

The last Australian Prime Minister to visit Honiara was Kevin Rudd in 2008.

Morrison touched down at the Honiara International Airport at 5.20pm yesterday to a colourful welcome.

His party was greeted on arrival by Prime Minister Sogavare, his wife Madam Emmy Sogavare, Foreign Affairs Minister Jeremiah Manele and other top government officials.

After being welcomed and garlanded, Morrison then inspected a guard of honour on the tarmac.

Bilateral talks
Both prime ministers will hold bilateral talks later today.

A highlight is expected to be discuss about China’s presence in the region.

Other issues at the top of agenda will be climate change, labour mobility and ongoing Australian support to Solomon Islands.

Morrison has also announced a financial package to support Solomon Islands workers getting employment in Australia over three years.

Prime Minister Morrison will also meet with the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) president William Lai today to look at ways that Australia can assist the country in football.

It is understood Morrison will also meet with former Prime Minister Rick Hou today.

One of the major projects being supported by the Australian government is the the undersea cable which is set to be completed and is due to be launched September.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz