Israel open to varied views

A healthy debate regarding Mideast issues is warranted. Racist comments are not (“Israel seeks ethnic purity,” Letters, Aug. 10). Children born in Israel are not “evaluated to determine whether they will impair the ethnic purity of the state.” Children born to Israeli citizens are citizens by birth whether born of Jewish, Arab, Druze, Bedouin or Christian mothers.

More than 80 percent of the land in Israel is owned by the state. Like many of Israel’s Middle East neighbors, Israel continues the land-use policies that existed under the Ottoman Empire.

Israel has removed buildings and even Jewish settlements that were not approved by the government. Not everyone, including Israelis, agree with Israeli government policies. But unlike every other Middle East country surrounding them, Israeli citizens (Arab and Jewish) have the right to voice and vote their concerns.

Israel allows all the major religions of the country to set their own religious guidelines and practices, including marriage. While many may not agree with the present rabbinical guidelines on marriage for Jewish citizens, the point is the issue is freely debated and argued in Israel in the Knesset, press and coffee houses, which is what is done in a free and democratic society.

Larry J. Kuznetz

Spokane