YOUR correspondent, R Westmoreland, seems to have a very blinkered view (Letters, March 14).

“The current round, which started with an Israeli terror attack”, is not in fact true.

To set this in its proper scene, until the 1920s Gaza city had been a mainly Jewish city; the only reason for the Jewish population leaving was that due to attacks by marauding Arabs, the Brits forcibly evicted them.

Now to our recent times: in 2011 more than 630 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel. Since last Friday more than 180 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel. The terror attacks are not from Israel, but into it.

Israel is the only state in the Middle East where there is no religious discrimination (Hamas, who control Gaza, are an extreme Islamist organisation which bans any religion other than its own brand of Islam); where there is freedom of sexual orientation; where there is freedom of political persuasion; where men, women and people of all religions are free to vote and, indeed, to stand for public office.

Israel is not a perfect state, and many things are wrong. However, it is not “apartheid”. Such language is incorrect and inflammatory.

The Rev Adrian Glasspole, Selby.