Christmas message of hate spoils the annual celebration

January 2, 2024

On Christmas Eve, a unique description of the event which is celebrated on Christmas Day was posted on Instagram.

"In the story of Christmas, Christ was born in modern-day Palestine under the threat of a government engaged in a massacre of innocents," the post begins. 

"He was part of a targeted population being indiscriminately killed to protect an unjust leader's power. Mary and Joseph, displaced by violence and forced to flee, became refugees in Egypt with a newborn waiting to one day return home. 

"Thousands of years later, right-wing forces are violently occupying Bethlehem as similar stories unfold for today's Palestinians, so much so that the Christian community in Bethlehem has canceled this year's Christmas Eve celebrations out of both safety and respect.

"And yet, also today, holy children are still being born in a place of unspeakable violence - for every child born, of any identity and from any place, is sacred. Especially the children of Gaza.

"The entire story of Christmas and Christ himself is about standing with the poor and powerless, the marginalized and maligned, the refugees and immigrants, the outcast and misunderstood without exception.

"This high Christian holiday is about honoring the precious sanctity of a family that, if the story were to unfold today, would be Jewish Palestinians. Merry Christmas. May there be peace on Earth, amen," the post concluded.

This version of the Christmas story has little to do with truth and history, but has much to say about the anti-Semitic mania that is now sweeping our country.

This particular work of fiction is representative of the illusions possessed by those who hate Jews and blame Israel for the bloody savagery unleashed upon it by the Hamas terrorist organization on October 7.

It was created by one Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat Representative from the state of New York. She is casually known as “AOC.”

Her diatribe created quite a stir, both from supporters and opponents of Israel and the Jewish people. One of her critics is Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, former presidential candidate, and someone who knows the real story.

Huckabee noted correctly that “Jesus was Jewish.” And he also provided some accuracy about Palestine and other relevant factors.

“’Palestinian’ meant Jewish people until 1962 when Yasser Arafat co-opted the term and created a nation and made up a people, and called them the ‘Palestinians,’ who previously were Jordanian,” he noted.

“This is a person that is utterly ignorant about what she is talking about, and she may ought to stick to something she knows, like bartending,” he said. “She has no clue about the history of the Middle East, Jesus, the Jewish people, the State of Israel, or virtually anything else that she talked about in her post,” Huckabee said.

Speaking about the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, he said that it’s the most “uncivilized act of atrocity that we have probably seen in our lifetime.” “And for anybody to defend this and scream ‘from the river to the sea,’ it’s not just anti-Semitism, it’s anti-humanity. This is evil.”

Since the slaughter and barbarism committed by Hamas last October, the United States has seen many pro-Palestinian/Hamas, anti-Israel protests. Many of them have been and are on college campuses.

There, Jewish students have been threatened and unable to move about freely, even to the point of having to miss classes. College administrations seemed unconcerned with this situation.

Recently, holiday travelers were heavily inconvenienced by protests blocking roads to airports, resulting in many travelers missing their flights.

In desperation, many of these people left their blocked vehicles and walked through the protesters trying to get to the gate before their flight took off.

Earlier in the year, a group of pro-Palestinian/Hamas protesters disrupted the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and vandalized the New York Public Library, sparking a wave of outrage.

Hundreds of demonstrators disrupted the Macy's Parade by gluing their hands to the pavement in the center of Sixth Avenue. Dressed in white jumpsuits, they were covered in fake blood. Some of them went to the library, and sprayed the words “free Palestine” in spray paint on the building, and damaged the buildings columns.

Exactly how this criminal behavior helps the Palestinians, or Hamas, is left to the imagination.

America still prides itself as a nation with freedom of speech protected in the U.S. Constitution. Yes, speech is still a protected right, despite the fact that some media are allowed to censor some speech. 

But the question is: why do these anti-Semites insist on blocking traffic and indulging in other criminal activities while exercising that right?

* * *

As we begin a new year, let us hope that 2024 returns the nation to the good old days of 2020, when prices were better, the southern border was more secure, we were not so illogically focused on the false hope of electric vehicles and green energy “saving the world,” and we were more focused on preserving the great country our founders had given us than on fundamentally transforming the United States of America into just one more socialist failure.

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas to all, and to all “please lighten up!”

Christmas, as most of us know, is an observance celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. It was a joyous and very special event from which Christian religions grew. Wise men came from afar to give the baby gifts, and over time that spirit of giving gradually evolved from a religious observance to include the giving of gifts between family and friends that occurs in many countries across the globe. 

The giving of gifts to children is an aspect that came to include the Jolly Old Elf, Santa Claus, or some other “bringer of gifts,” who delivers presents to the “good little girls and boys.” 

The celebration of Christmas is both a religious observance with annual programs in churches, and a wondrous display of lights and other decorations, benevolent giving, and good will. 

For centuries in the U.S. and elsewhere the religious and secular observances existed together in perfect harmony. Everyone enjoyed Christmas for what it meant to them and those that observed the birth of Jesus were also most often eagerly involved in the giving and receiving of gifts, putting up the tree and decorations, and the gathering of family.

But as the evolution progressed, more and more Christmas observers honored the secular aspects of the day more than its religious origins, and a lot of folks who celebrate Christmas today are not Christians and do not celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th.

And now in this, the Age of Hypersensitivity, Christmas religious traditions have become unpopular with many people, and instead of quietly and politely leaving alone those who celebrate the religious meaning of the day to enjoy it as they have for so long, a faction now has determined that religious elements are offensive to them and demand their removal so they will not be made uncomfortable by their presence.

This now widespread Christmas discomfort is not quite to the level of full-scale protests, but headed in that direction, particularly where public displays are concerned. 

Religious symbols are becoming, or perhaps are already, as unpopular as symbols of the Civil War, despite the historical value of those symbols of our past. For example, a 34-foot cross that was erected nearly 50 years ago at Pensacola, Florida’s Bayview Park has been ordered removed by a federal judge after 4 people started an action because they saw the cross when visiting the park and were unable to cope with that experience.

A federal appeals court ordered another large cross to be removed last year. Constructed in 1925 at a busy intersection in Bladensburg, MD to memorialize soldiers who died in World War I, it was deemed offensive because some saw “religion” when driving through the intersection, rather than the purpose for which the monument was privately financed and constructed.

A three-judge panel heard the case, which was decided by a two-to-one vote. Chief Judge Roger Gregory dissented, noting that the government is not required by the First Amendment to “purge from the public sphere any reference to religion.” This point no doubt will zoom past the complainers, who see only their personal displeasure and discomfort, which, of course, is more important than anything else.

The First Liberty Institute, which supports religious freedom, and represented the American Legion in the matter, said the decision “sets dangerous precedent by completely ignoring history.”

Where Christmas is concerned, the fact that without the growth of the observance of the birth of Jesus there would be no Christmas for people to enjoy with gifts, parties and decorations. Despite this, the offended masses think that reminders of Jesus’ birth, like nativity scenes with the baby, mother Mary and father Joseph, and the three wise men, send them into a panic, even as they open their presents under the tree.

This penchant for manic criticism of Christmas has come to include complaining about seasonal songs. Some in their imagination see sexual impropriety in the decades-old Christmas song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and think that because some relatively small number of people believe this, that the larger number who see it for what it is – a flirty song that they have liked all their lives – should be banned, denying pleasure to the many because of the objections of a few.

“Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” is seen as encouraging bullying, rather than a song describing how Rudolph became the leader of Santa’s crew.

In what may be a sign of “things to come,” the iconic gingerbread man has been attacked by a coffee shop at the Parliament of Scotland. The political body has now demanded they be referred to as “gingerbread persons.”

Some people think that anything that makes them uncomfortable or that they don’t like for whatever reason should be immediately and permanently removed, without any consideration given to the thousands or millions who value and appreciate those things.

And what on this Earth cannot be found offensive by some small group?

However, all that has been said before must not be interpreted as a “Bah, humbug” recitation from Mr. Scrooge.

To those who celebrate Christmas: Merry Christmas!

For those who do not: Happy Holidays!