In last week's Age newspaper (Tuesday and Wednesday last week), its crosswords czar reckons that a Jew is an Israeli and an Israeli is a Jew.
They could try telling that to former Australian Governor-General Sir Zelman Cowen, the vice-regal representative here and very much an Australian citizen.
Or perhaps to Michael Danby, a Member of the House of Representatives and chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Australian Parliament.
Or Mike Kelly, also a member of the House of Reps and who served Australia valiantly in our armed forces rising to the rank of Colonel
They are all Jewish. Not Israeli. But proud Australian citizens.
They should probably also try telling Raleb Majadele, the Israeli Minister of Science, Culture and Sport, an Arab Muslim Israeli who is a Cabinet Minister in the national government, that he is somehow not an Israeli either.
And indeed the twelve current Israeli Arab members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
In fact there've been some fifty-nine since Israel independence in 1949.
At last count by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics there were 1.413 million Arabs in Israel, the vast majority of them citizens of Israel and therefore Israelis.
It's no easy business formulating crosswords - nor solving them in my case- but this level of ignorance and stupidity is wrong and it speaks volumes about the simplistic views about the Middle East and the Jewish community generally we've seen propagated by Australia's most left-wing daily newspaper, The Age.
Game on.
