H/T Pic Honest Reporting)

The invaluable webzine The New Observer has come up with a good War On Christmas story:  Xmas Tree in Jerusalem “Anti-Jewish” December 26, 2016.

The rabbinate of Jerusalem has issued instructions for all Christmas trees to be taken down in the city while the rabbi of the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa described the symbol as “anti-Jewish.”

…According to a report in the Times of Israel, the Jerusalem rabbinate has called on hotels in the city not to erect Christmas trees or even host New Year’s Eve parties…

The Times of Israel said that although the letter does not threaten sanctions, “it could be interpreted as a veiled threat,” in contravention of guidelines issued by the Chief Rabbinate in 2015 asserting that kashrut inspectors could not revoke the kosher certification from hotels…if a Christmas tree was displayed during the holiday season.

The Technicon incident is even more radical because the Rabbi there was willing to inflict considerable inconvenience on his own followers to avoid the temptations of assimilation.

…the rabbi of the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa has forbidden all students from entering the student union building on the campus because a Christmas tree had been placed there.

Rabbi Elad Dokow, writing on the Srugim website, a Hebrew language news service serving the religious Zionist sector, said that the tree was “an anti-Jewish symbol” and an “attack on Jewish identity.”

He ordered students not to enter the campus or eat in the restaurants there. In a question and answer session, Rabbi Dokow said that the Christmas tree was “idolatry” and that it was tantamount to declaring that “Jerusalem does not belong to the people of Israel.”

There have been interesting stories of this sort before from Israel, never of course entering the Anglosphere via the MSM. In 2012 I noted War On Christmas Gets Reported – From Israel and in 2013 Repression of Christmas: Israel Shows The Way

The New Observer concluded its piece with

This outburst against Christian symbolism in Israel is aimed at Christian Palestinians. Of the total Christian population of 154,000 in Israel, about 80 percent are Palestinian.

Americans should consider if the (highly successful) War on Christmas in this country over the past generation was not in reality rooted in the same politically domineering and religiously intolerant impulse.