Australians have been lectured a lot in the past couple of years about social cohesion, but it reached a fever pitch this week in response to protests against the visit by Israel’s head of state.

Isaac Herzog has been credibly accused of incitement to commit genocide and, while his is largely a ceremonial role, he is the head of state of a nation credibly accused of genocide, whose leaders are wanted on war crime charges.

Raising any of these legitimate issues brought more lectures from political leaders about needing to “bring down the temperature” and a reminder that Herzog is here to comfort members of Australia’s grief-stricken and traumatised Jewish communities after the horrific Bondi terror attack.

But two things can be true at the same time. In this case, while there were Australian Jewish people who sought comfort from “their head of state”, there were also Australian Jewish people who found no comfort in Herzog’s visit, who found community in people protesting the invitation while Palestinians are still being killed by Israeli forces.

Herzog himself ended his public meeting with Anthony Albanese by referencing the “next phase in Gaza”. But raising what that means – which includes Americans and Israelis seeking to establish beachfront resorts on Palestinian territory, built on the bones of mass graves – is raising the temperature, according to Australian leaders.

Australians were asked to separate the reason for the visit, and the........

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