The Sea-tac Airport Flap

This past week, there was considerable editorial comment here and in Israel on the outpouring of virulent and anti-Semitic hate mail pouring into newspapers as a result of the "Christmas Tree Incident" at the airport. What is clear from the comments is that as a result of some complaint, presumably from representative members of the Jewish community, the Christmas Tree was taken down. An Israeli editorial mentions that there was no specific request for this to be done, but rather a request that a Hannukah menorah be placed side-by-side with the tree. Curiously, it neglects to mention that the Christmas Tree was removed.

In his editorial in a Seattle paper, Robert Jacobs, the regional direcor of the ADL does say the following:

"The Port of Seattle commissioners who agreed to pull the trees from the airport were misguided. The darker elements in our community who blamed this action on "the Jews" were more than misguided"

To whose influence, pray tell, is the community supposedly expected to direct its condemnation? The Buddists?

I quite agree that unbridled anti-Semitism is not a measured response; and the Commissioners decision was another example of odious Political Correctness, which, characteristically, is democratic and even-handed in antagonizing everybody. And there are many Jews--me among them--that would have been quite content to see a Christmas Tree at the airport.

In these troubled times, the unqualified love and good-will that is clearly reflected in the idea of Christmas and of the Christmas tree in particular is so poignantly clear and is so desperately needed that it is nothing less than unkind bordering on cruel and insensitive to oppose it.

There are enough cases of legitimate anti-Semitism to preoccupy these do-gooder organizations. The Jewish community does not have to compete in the Good-Will department