Australia’s New Slang Word “Social Cohesion”

From the President’s Desk
The Anti-Semite Corner of the Week

From Multicultural Pride to “Social Cohesion” Panic –

President Herzog’s visit exposed how the language of “social cohesion” has become a substitute for leadership

By: Anat Vidor, WIZO President

I thought I was an expert in Aussie slang.

But it seems that President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia has introduced a new slang word: social cohesion. This is the language now coming out of Canberra.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the visit should help Australia “look towards uniting”, while carefully reminding everyone that Australians still have the right to protest. Foreign Minister Penny Wong says she “really understands the depth of feeling in the community” about what people have seen in Gaza.

So one has to ask: do you have political advisers, or did a dingo eat them?

Because every time they repeat the words “unity” and “social cohesion,” they are admitting panic. They are admitting they are not sure they can control the temperature inside their own population.

That is not leadership. That is crisis management.

So the buzzwords come out.

This is surprising, because Australia prides itself, rightly, on being one of the world’s great multicultural success stories. A social justice powerhouse. A free speech champion. A country where protesting foreign regimes is practically a civic sport.

And yet, it now seems that a visit by a ceremonial head of state could fracture the entire social fabric and turn an Australian ethnic minority into a security concern.

That should terrify Australians far more than any protest.

One of Australia’s foundational principles has always been clear: ethnic communities are not held responsible for the actions of their countries of origin.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Australia in 2014, massive protests erupted over Beijing’s human rights record. But no one spoke about fortifying Chinatown. No police commissioner warned that Chinese Australians might be at risk. No one treated an entire community as a volatility index.

Of course not.

So why, now, in official speeches and security briefings, is a diplomatic visit explicitly linked to the safety of the Jewish community?

Can’t they see that by making this link, they are repeating the same mistake, only this time with a microphone? They are normalizing the dangerous idea that a Jewish grandmother in Bondi is somehow responsible for a war in Gaza. That is how Australian Jews become “radioactive citizens.”

And that is precisely why Australia now finds itself invoking major event policing, restricting protest routes, and holding anxious press conferences about keeping the peace. This is not social cohesion. It is a society being managed like a live wire.

There is little doubt that President Herzog’s invitation came from a good place, an acknowledgment that something had gone wrong, and that Jewish Australians deserved reassurance.

But a gesture cannot heal a wound when the permission structure that created it remains intact.

Just this week, antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on the steps of Victoria’s Parliament House, including the slogans “Herzog, fear” and “Globalise the Intifada.” It remained in place as Members of Parliament walked past it, as though it were part of the building’s decor.

And in Melbourne, banners were hung over a major road running through Jewish residential areas reading “Israeli war criminals out” and “Israel terrorism kills kids.” They were left there, in plain sight.

When this kind of “free speech” carries no consequences, nothing changes. What is tolerated becomes permission.

And so the state’s solution becomes permanent security management of Jewish life, not addressing hate, but containing its consequences.

Like a shark alarm on Australian beaches, the swimmers are told to get out of the water or a net is thrown around them. The sharks remain.

In the process, Australia risks losing the very DNA it is so proud of.

Because a real multicultural society does not need a standing army to protect one minority.

That is not social cohesion.

That is a hostage situation.

And Jewish Australians are not asking for nets.

They are asking Australia to stop feeding the sharks.

Source: https://thenightly.com.au/opinion/editorial/editorial-albanese-should-ensure-his-party-welcomes-visit-of-israels-president-isaac-herzog-c-21474017