After reading ‘Blowing of the shofars' (page 15, The Weekend Sun, April 27) my only thought was, the only way to bless the state of Israel is to wish for everybody there to get a clue, to see with open eyes, to empathise. And while they're at it, to try to find more useful and worthy leaders than the corrupt farce called Bibi Netanyahu.

The Israeli peace group I am loosely affiliated with, Gush Shalom, sent me the following comment:

"Natalie Portman's refusal to shake Netanyahu's hand verges on anti-Semitism. So said Minister Steinitz. If that is so, then there are in Israel quite a lot of anti-Semites."

The state of Israel and the people of Israel are two different things; sometimes they coincide, often they don't. And the policies of the state are not the Jewish people. The state's policies are not even the Israeli citizens, though they can and often do corrupt the citizens.

W Parish, Bellevue.