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partly financing a genocide.....
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog will be dining with Anthony Albanese tonight [10/02/2026], tomorrow he’s off for a whistle-stop tour of Canberra, courtesy of the RAAF, who will also fly him and his entourage to Melbourne on Thursday. Michael West and Stephanie Tran report. MWM has obtained a copy of the itinerary of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s NSW state visit. According to the itinerary, President Herzog is scheduled to have dinner with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at Kirribilli House tonight at 7 pm. The dinner will follow a meeting with Chabad Bondi founder Rabbi Yehoram Ulman and a Chabad community event where the Prime Minister will also be in attendance. President Herzog will travel on a RAAF plane from Sydney to Canberra tomorrow morning, spend the day in Canberra and return to Sydney in the evening for a meeting at Stephen Lowy’s Watsons Bay residence. Lowy is a shareholder of Westfield in conjunction with his father, Frank Lowy, and siblings Peter and David. Stephen Lowy served as chairman of the World Board of Trustees of Keren Hayesod/United Israel Appeal until December 2024, raising $1.1 billion for the organisation. A MWM investigation found that United Israel Appeal Australia has remitted $376m to Israel since 2013, with some of these funds going to programs that fund the IDF and illegal settlements. In November 2024, Frank Lowy and Mark Leibler became the first Australians to receive the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honour, Israel’s highest civilian honour. The medal was awarded to the pair by President Herzog. Since his arrival on Monday morning, Herzog has been received by a number of government officials. On Monday, NSW Premier Chris Minns hosted a lunch for Herzog. The Premier later spoke at an event at the International Convention Centre (the ICC, not to be confused with the International Criminal Court). The event was hosted by the Zionist Federation of Australia. “I am here also to re-invigorate the important relations between our two strong democracies. I know that by working together we will find the way to expand collaboration and increase understanding and upgrade our relations. During my visit, I intend to discuss it with your national leadership,” Herzog told the ICC crowd. Today, the Governor of NSW, Margaret Beazley and her husband, Dennis Wilson, held a lunch reception in honour of Herzog at the Government House Ballroom. Herzog also had a breakfast meeting with “business leaders”. Herzog will depart for Melbourne on Thursday. “He should be arrested and investigated”Chris Sidoti, Commissioner on the UN Commission of Inquiry into the Occupied Palestinian Territories including East Jerusalem and Israel told MWM in a live interview last week that there is “legal scope and a moral duty” to arrest President Herzog. Herzog has stated that all Palestinians are responsible for the October 7th Hamas attack and signed bombs dropped on civilians in Gaza. The UN Commission of Inquiry has found that Herzog’s remarks amount to incitement of genocide in Gaza. “The statement that an entire nation is responsible for the attack of 7 October 2023 may reasonably be interpreted as incitement to the Israeli security forces personnel to target the Palestinians in Gaza as a group as being collectively culpable for the 7 October 2023 attack in Israel,” the Commission stated. In light of the Commission’s findings, Sidoti stated that head of state immunity would not apply to Herzog. “Our commission of inquiry has found that Herzog, the President of Israel, is responsible for incitement to genocide, which is one of the atrocity crimes. And so in my view, Head of State immunity doesn’t apply to Herzog when he is visiting Australia, because of this conclusion from the Commission that he is responsible for incitement to genocide,” Sidoti said. “That means he should be arrested. He should be investigated. If there is evidence sufficient for prosecution, he should be prosecuted. I would see that as a legal duty but also an ethical duty.” https://michaelwest.com.au/herzog-itinerary-dinner-at-kirribilli-with-albo/
YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.
Gus Leonisky POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951. Premier thanks Israel friends, bashes Australian citizens | The West Report
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framing....
THE WAY THE NEWS IS REPORTED IS OFTEN (ALWAYS) A SLANTED WAY TO FRAME A "SITUATION"...
— SITUATION: ISRAEL IS COMMITTING A GENOCIDE...
— A "TERRORIST" [BADLY FRAMED BY ASIO] ATTACK KILLED 15 JEWS AND INJURING MANY OTHERS AT BONDI...
— AUSTRALIAN PROTESTERS OPPOSE VISIT BY ISRAEL PRESIDENT — TO "CONSOLE THE JEWISH COMMUNITY" — IN REGARD OF HIS SUPPORT FOR GENOCIDE.
— NSW INTRODUCED SPECIAL NEW LAWS TO STOP PROTESTS
— PROTESTERS PROTEST IN PEACE NONETHELESS...
— POLICE OVER-REACT.... HURTING MANY PROTESTERS...
— POLICE CLAIMS RIGHTEOUSNESS...
THE BBC FRAMES AND TAKES OVER:
Australia police defend actions after violence at protest over Israeli president visit
BY Lana Lamand AND Katy WatsonAustralian police have defended their actions after violently clashing with protesters during a demonstration against a visit by the Israeli president.
Video emerged of police charging and punching protesters during the rally in Sydney on Monday night, with a state parliament MP among those who said they were injured in the clashes. Police said 27 people were arrested, with nine later charged, and 10 officers assaulted.
Officers showed "remarkable restraint", NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said Tuesday, adding they "did what they needed to do".
Earlier, rally organisers had failed in their court bid to overturn police powers limiting their right to demonstrate during Isaac Herzog's visit.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0zed0dekgo
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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.
Gus Leonisky
POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.
nuances?....
Israel tightens grip over West Bank while Herzog visits Australia
By Laura Tingle
Even as Israeli President Isaac Herzog was accusing the thousands of Sydney demonstrators protesting his visit on Monday of wanting to delegitimise the existence of the world's only Jewish state, the Israeli government was taking concrete actions in the West Bank designed to "continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state".
In doing so, Herzog just made life much more difficult for the Albanese government, which, last September, belatedly turned its stated support for a two-state solution in the Middle East into recognition of the state of Palestine.
Much of the focus on the distressing and violent scenes in Sydney on Monday centred on just where the blame lay between the police and protesters for the scenes that ricocheted around the world on social media. Men engaged in evening prayer appeared to be yanked away by police, and an officer appeared to repeatedly punch a protester who had his hands in the air.
This was the physical manifestation of some of the division that we have seen with Herzog's visit, instead of simply the community healing that Albanese had said he hoped would occur when the Israeli head of state came here in support of the Jewish community, which has said it felt "heard" when this invitation was issued.
A debate without nuanceAfter the initial horror over events in Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,219 people were killed, outrage grew over the Israeli government's retaliatory actions over two and a half years in Gaza, which left an estimated 70,000 dead and Israel facing a charge of genocide, brought by South Africa in the International Court of Justice. Israel denies the accusations of genocide.
Then came the antisemitic shooting assault on a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in Australia's deadliest act of terrorism.
All these events have now left wide open the question of where Australia's policy goes next in such a febrile political environment.
Herzog, who a UN Special Commission of Inquiry found made comments which incited the commission of genocide, an allegation he denies, said on Monday that what takes place at demonstrations like the ones seen around the country in the past 48 hours amounts to efforts to undermine and delegitimise Israel's existence, which contradicts the spirit of Australia's long alliance with his country. The commission's report is not legally binding.
But what is happening in Gaza has put an intense focus on the actions of Israel.
Israel continues to dismiss criticisms as either being antisemitic or failing to understand the state's need to defend itself.
There is little nuance in the position of either the Israeli or Palestinian sides in this bitter conflict.
Israel tightens grip over occupied West BankAustralia's position in support of Israel's right to exist has never extended to wiping out the rights of Palestinians in the small pockets of territory left to them when about 800,000 of them were expelled from their homes in what is known as the Nakba at the time the state of Israel was created in 1948.
Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Palestinian Territories, including Gaza, has been found to be illegal under international law. In a landmark July 19, 2024, advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories illegal, ruling that its presence, settlement expansion, annexation and exploitation of natural resources violated international law. Australia, along with many other nations, has long accepted that view.
Since a ceasefire was declared in October last year, a further 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
That is in the much-reduced area of the strip — about 42 per cent — not occupied and razed to the ground by Israel. There is no serious timeline for Israel to withdraw from its current control of that territory.
And on Monday, Israel made another move to exert its control of the West Bank, where settlers have been aggressively throwing local Palestinians off their land, assaulting residents, demolishing houses and killing crops with pesticides.
The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, would form the largest part of any future Palestinian state but is seen by many on Israel's religious right as Israeli land.
As Herzog embarked on his visit to Australia, Israel's security cabinet announced plans to tighten Israel's grip over the occupied West Bank, which would allow Jewish Israelis to buy West Bank land directly and extend greater Israeli control over areas where the Palestinian Authority exercises power.
The announcement sparked international outrage with the United Nations chief António Guterres saying he was "gravely concerned" and Saudi Arabia and seven other Muslim-majority countries condemning the move, which would pave the way for even more settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Guterres warned the changes were "eroding the prospects for the two-state solution", spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.
And that, quite clearly, is the plan.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-11/isaac-herzog-visit-protest-police-west-bank-annexation/106325902
NUANCES?.... ONE CAN'T HAVE NUANCES WHEN ONE LIVES UNDER THE GUN, THE. BOMB AND HOME DESTRUCTION DAILY.... ONE CAN'T MHAVE NUANCES WHEN KIDS AR DYING FROM COLD AND HUNGER....
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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.
Gus Leonisky
POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.
desecration....
As Herzog commemorates Bondi, IDF desecrates Australian war graves
by Kim Wingerei
Israel’s President Herzog is here to offer solace to those devastated by the Bondi massacre. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the IDF has been busy bulldozing a cemetery with graves of Australian soldiers.
Satellite images show the destruction of the War Cemetery in Al-Tuffah, Gaza City, where over 3,000 Australian, British and other allied soldiers of two world wars are buried or commemorated.
Graves of more than 100 allied soldiers — predominantly Australians — killed in the Second World War have been obliterated.
According to the Middle East Monitor, the destruction first showed up in images from 2024. The cemetery’s former caretaker said:
“Two bulldozing operations took place. First around the perimeter, an olive grove was levelled. Later, just under 1,000 square metres inside the walls, including graves of Australian soldiers, were bulldozed. The area was used to build earth barriers.”
Israel claimed the cemetery was an “active combat zone.”
https://michaelwest.com.au/as-herzog-commemorates-bondi-idf-desecrates-australian-war-graves/
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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.
Gus Leonisky
POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.