Israel has been a Jewish nation since biblical times, although having seen its population driven out and dispersed by Romans, Greeks, and various other invaders and conquerors over the millennia.

Israel is populated overwhelmingly by Jews. Israel is the world’s only country to offer automatic citizenship to all Jews. Israel is the country whose flag bears the Magen David, (Star of David) and whose official symbol is the traditional Jewish menorah (seven-branched candelabra). This is the nation snarkily termed by New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren in the Wednesday edition, “what the Israeli government likes to call the Jewish State.”

This is a jumping-off point used by Rudoren to imply that the State of Israel is racist and mistreats its Arab citizens. It seems, as explained by Sabine Haddad, spokeswoman for Israel’s PIBA -- Population, Immigration and Borders Authority, the agency had been receiving pre-Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) requests for a list of the most popular Israeli names for boys and girls in the past year. Nothing new about this. Such lists have been published in previous years -- and it is more than obvious that the requests came from Jewish families expecting to have a baby in the coming year.

And so, a list was published, listing the most popular boys’ names as Yosef, followed by Daniel, Uri, Itai, Omer, Adam, Noam, Ariel, Eitan and David.  But, wait, the name given to the most boy babies in the year was actually Muhammad – not to Jewish babies, of course, but to Arab ones. And the reason that Muhammad-named kids outnumbered any others is simply that it is used by a huge percentage of Arab mothers and fathers for their offspring throughout the Muslim world, whereas Jewish parents’ choices are far more varied.

Haddad admitted that it might have been wiser to mark the list with an asterisked note indicating that only Hebrew names were included; but she explained that there was no racial bias intended in fulfilling the requests from a group that was easily understood to consist of Jewish families.

Not in Rudoren’s book. This was only a sign of the prejudice Israel exhibits towards its Arabs – you know, the Israeli Arab citizens who enjoy full citizenship rights, including the vote and the ability to serve in the Knesset (Parliament) and as judges in the courts. Scratching up whatever nit of a statistic she can find, Rudoren laments the number of Arab officeholders, tenured professors, TV announcers and producers, etc. etc. (she did omit to whine about there not being enough Arab rabbis) as proof of what she quotes a left-wing source claiming it being proof of “racism, which in Israel has become institutionalized and self-evident.”

I guess Israel is just “too Jewish” to suit the tastes of Ms. Rudoren and the Times -- and why not? Her employer found his family heritage too Jewish to keep and converted out of the religion altogether.