Celebrity worship is one of the sillier vanities of the age.
Adoring narcissists always ends badly. Because narcissists (celebrities as opposed to actors) are always drawn to what makes them feel good and adored. And that invariably turns out to be lefty politics. In the case of Jewish actors, that means going anti-Israel and anti-Jewish.
The obsession with Natalie Portman, a mediocre and annoying celebrity, kept on going even in Jewish Zionist circles, even when she made her views clear enough.
Yet she now thinks that she was slightly hoodwinked into not questioning the actions of the Israeli state. As the government has become more right-wing, she has started to be a critical voice. She sees some of her previous opinions as being the result of her education, which she believes put too exclusive an emphasis on the Holocaust.
(Then there was her attempt at adapting Amos Oz.)
That was '15. She still got the Genesis Prize. And if she had shown up, that would have been $2 million deposited into the accounts of the New Israel Fund and its anti-Israel groups.
It's a useful wake-up call.
Israel has plenty of heroes. Actual heroes. It doesn't need a fading lefty celebrity. There are the soldiers, past and present, who risked their lives, the civilians wounded in horrifying terror attacks, the paramedics who are the first arrivals on the scene of unspeakable atrocities, the children living in communities under terror attack who have been trained to run for bomb shelters.
Any and all of them are better people than Natalie Portman. And more worthy of respect and honor. And far more likely to have the right values.
Stop caring what Steven Spielberg or Natalie Portman thinks. Start caring about what matters.