President Herzog’s visit might be useful if he could be persuaded to ponder the lessons Australia might offer.

When the six Australian states joined together in 1901 to become a new nation, there was no doubt that they conceived of Australia as a white country. First Nations peoples were denied citizenship, and the centrepiece of immigration policy was the White Australia Policy.

Today, other than a few activists on the far right, that vision of Australia is rejected. In over a century our national identity has moved from a loyal outpost of Anglo Britain to a multicultural society, still struggling to find justice for its Indigenous peoples.

Nations evolve, and if they fail to adjust, they decline. Perhaps the Australian experience suggests that Zionism, conceived as creating a Jewish homeland, also needs to evolve.

Currently the lands of Israel/Palestine are occupied by roughly equal numbers of Jews and Palestinians, over........

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