Israel's president visits Sydney's Bondi Beach massacre site and meets victims' families

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Israel President Isaac Herzog started a state visit Monday aimed at consoling grieving Australian Jews and improving bilateral relations by laying a wreath and stones at the site of an antisemitic attack in Sydney that left 15 dead.

Herzog met victims’ families and survivors of the Dec. 14 attack on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach. Only one of the two alleged gunmen survived following a gunbattle with police. Naveed Akram has been charged with committing a terrorist act, murdering 15 people and wounding another 40 in what was Australia's worst mass shooting in 29 years.

Herzog laid the wreath and two stones he had brought from Jerusalem at the rain-swept Bondi Pavillion near the site of the massacre. The pavilion became on impromptu memorial in the days after the tragedy as flowers and cards were placed there.

The Israeli president said the stones would remain at Bondi in memory of the victims and as a reminder that good people of all faiths and nations “will continue to hold strong in the face of terror, violence and hatred, and that we shall overcome this evil together.”

“We were shaken to our core when we first heard about the Bondi Beach attack. Our heart missed a beat, like all Israelis and all Jews. And I’m here to express solidarity, friendship, and love,” Herzog told reporters.

“And I also believe that this is an opportunity to upgrade the relations between Israel and Australia because we are two democracies that share values together and we are confronting the roots of evil from all over the world. And we should do so together,” he added.

The visit to Bondi within hours of the president landing in Sydney with his wife Michal Herzog came with tight security. Police snipers were visible posted on Bondi roof tops.

Herzog will also visit Melbourne and the national capital Canberra before he returns to Israel on Thursday. Sydney and Melbourne are Australia’s largest cities and home to 85% of the nation’s Jewish population.

Protests were held in Sydney and Melbourne later Monday over how Israel has waged the war against the militant Hamas group in Gaza and treated Gaza's civilian population. Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, triggering the war.

Mainstream Jewish groups have welcomed the visit of Herzog, a former leader of the centrist Labor Party who now plays a largely ceremonial role.

The smaller Jewish Council of Australia community group ran full-page ads in Sydney and Melbourne newspapers on Monday, endorsed with the names of 687 Australian Jews, that said: “Herzog does not speak for us and is NOT WELCOME HERE.”

“We refuse to let our collective grief be used to legitimize a leader whose rhetoric has been part of inciting a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and has contributed to the illegal annexation of the West Bank,” the council’s executive officer Sarah Schwartz said.

Jewish leaders initiated the invitation extended by Governor-General Sam Mostyn, Australia’s equivalent of Israel’s president, at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s request.

Albanese and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu have been openly hostile toward each other since the Australian announced six months ago that his government would recognize a Palestinian state.

On Monday, Herzog said he welcomed the “positive steps” the Australian government had taken to tackle antisemitism since the Bondi attack, which was allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group.

The Australian Parliament last month rushed through legislation that lowers the threshold requirements for groups to be banned for hate speech.

The government also announced its highest form of public inquiry, a royal commission, would investigate the nature, prevalence and drivers of antisemitism in general, as well as the circumstances of the Bondi shooting.

Herzog said he shared the frustrations of the victims' families that more had not been done to prevent such an attack on Australia's Jewish community.

“These frustrations were shared by many, many of us, including myself,” Herzog said.

“I’ve seen this wave surge all over the world, and I’ve seen it in many countries, including Canada, Great Britain, the United States, and Australia — all English-speaking countries,” Herzog added.

After the Bondi shooting was declared a terrorist attack, the New South Wales state parliament rushed through legislation increasing police powers to arrest protesters.

Police can restrict protests for two weeks at a time for up to 90 days following a declared terrorist attack. Police last week continued the restrictions for another two weeks in an effort to contain civil discord in Sydney during Herzog’s visit.

On Monday evening, police clashed with hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Sydney Town Hall. They sprayed the crowd with pepper spray and 27 people were arrested, including 10 charged with assaulting police, a police statement said.

Paramedics treated several protesters for the effects of pepper spray, but there was no report of serious injury, police said.

The protest had continued after the Palestine Action Group organizers lost a court challenge to a police order preventing them from marching from the Town Hall to the New South Wales Parliament.

In Melbourne, 5,000 protesters gathered outside downtown Flinders Street Railway Station, then marched several blocks to the State Library, blocking evening peak-hour traffic, police said.

A 20-year-old woman was arrested after allegedly burning two flags and causing fire damage to a tram stop, police said. She was released and was expected to face charges of willful damage, police said.

Earlier, Herzog said protests targeting him were mostly attempts to “undermine and delegitimize” Israel’s right to exist.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog, center right, visits Bondi Beach where the Dec. 2025 shooting took place, in Sydney, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Israel's President Isaac Herzog, right, and his wife Michal Herzog, second right, visit Bondi Beach, where a mass shooting took place in Dec. 2025, in Sydney, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Israel's President Isaac Herzog speaks during his visit to Bondi Beach where the Dec. 2025 shooting took place, in Sydney, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Israel's President Isaac Herzog, center, and his wife Michal Herzog, left, offer prayers at Bondi Beach where the Dec. 2025 shooting took place, in Sydney, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Israel's President Isaac Herzog, center left, and his wife Michal Herzog, center right, arrive at Bondi Beach for a memorial of the Dec. 2025 shooting victims, in Sydney, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

WASHINGTON (AP) — If President Donald Trump is coming to the game, bet on the visiting team.

You'll usually be in the money — at least if recent history holds.

The New York Knicks, after two straight wins in the finals against the San Antonio Spurs, lost at home 115-111 on Monday night with Trump, a longtime fan of the Big Apple's NBA team, in a luxury suite at Madison Square Garden.

He similarly may have had a jinxing role for MLB's Washington Nationals during his first term, when the home team lost Game 5 of the World Series to the Houston Astros 7-1.

In November, the president was on hand when the NFL's Washington Commanders hosted the Detroit Lions, and the visitors romped 44-22. And he was front and center at Bethpage Black when Europe topped the U.S. golf team in last fall's Ryder Cup.

It’s a glaring irony for a president fanatical about sports but also especially obsessed with winning.

Trump frequently mentions his own election victories, even boasting of a 2020 win over Joe Biden that never happened, and touts his record of endorsing winning Republican primary candidates. His love of sports also sometimes leads him into hostile territory, including heavily Democratic Manhattan, where his very presence led to sustained booing before Game 3's tipoff.

The White House called the suggestion that Trump's attendance might not bode well for home teams “foolish” and called him “the people's president.”

“President Trump is the greatest champion for sports of any president in American history, and he loves them," spokesperson Olivia Wales said in a statement.

To be fair, Trump's attendance doesn't guarantee the home team will lose.

Last September, the New York Yankees beat the visiting Detroit Tigers 9-3 as the president marked the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Trump was also there when Navy beat Army 17-16 in Baltimore last fall, when the Midshipmen were technically the home team — though Navy wasn't playing in its home stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

He's also been to plenty of sporting events where home field advantage isn't a factor.

That was true for his attending the U.S. Open in September and the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans, where the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs, as well as that year's Daytona 500. Ditto for 2025s NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia and the FIFA Club World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

It also won't be an issue Sunday, when the White House's South Lawn will host a UFC show to mark Trump's 80th birthday.

If the trend holds, however, it may not be great news for the U.S. national team in the World Cup, which opens Thursday.

The Americans have never made it past the semifinal stage in the tournament's modern history anyway — and they'll have to contend this time with Trump playing an outsize role in organizing the event. He has pledged to attend the final and award the trophy to the winning team.

Some Knicks fans have faulted the president for the Game 3 defeat, even though their team still leads the series. Game 4 will also be played in New York on Wednesday, though this time Trump isn't expected to attend.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate and frequent foil for the president, playfully picked up on the theme of Trump as a jinx, reposting a past White House post on X declaring “Call it the Trump effect” alongside discussion about the Knicks' loss.

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith — himself mentioned as a possible future presidential hopeful — suggested before Game 3 that it'd be Trump's fault if the Knicks didn't win. Afterward, he said, “What I feared would happen ended up happening.”

“The president disrupted our mojo,” said Smith, a longtime Knicks fan, before adding, “The man messed things up.”

Asked after the game about Smith potentially blaming him for a Knicks loss, Trump dismissed the commentator's political aspirations and questioned his intelligence.

“I think he’s a nice guy. But you need a certain aptitude to run for president,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One for his flight back to Washington early Tuesday

“You need a high IQ. I’m not sure that Stephen has that,” he said. “I don’t think he does, actually.”

Before he was a politician, Trump, a native of the New York City borough of Queens, frequently attended Knicks games, sometimes sitting courtside. His return to the Garden nonetheless drew long and loud boos when his face was shown on the jumbotron during the national anthem.

In fact, he's been roundly booed repeatedly, though it has more to do with his politics than any role he might have in jinxing the home team. Trump drew boos at the Nationals' World Series game and during the Commanders game and the U.S. Open. At some events he's cheered and the crowd reaction can also be mixed — though Trump just as likely to simply claim a more friendly reception than he actually gets.

After the Knicks game, the president tried to suggest that the boos were “I think, mostly cheers.” The White House similarly attempted to spin the incident into a political show of strength, posting a photo of Trump at the game with the caption “King of New York.”

Offering a different assessment was New York's Daily News tabloid. It featured a cartoon of an exaggeratedly rotund Trump wearing a No. 38 Knicks jersey — with a bubble emerging from his mouth saying “approval rating.”

President Donald Trump attends an NBA Finals playoff basketball game between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden in New York, Monday, June 8, 2026, with Kai Trump. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A New York Knicks fan cheers at a watch party during Game 3 of the NBA Finals basketball series between the Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs, Monday, June 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)