The punditocracy’s favorite non-story came roaring back this week, with news that Seattle-Tacoma International Airport decided to remove all of its Christmas trees rather than address a Chabad rabbi’s request that it also display a Hanukka menora. It’s the kind of civic overreaction that gives tolerance a bad name. As the ADL noted in a press release (alarmingly headlined “Response to the Port of Seattle Decision to Remove Christmas”), “Neither the rabbi nor anyone else in the Jewish community ever sought to have the Christmas trees taken away from the airport.”

Of course, that won’t stop angry demagogues from reviving accusations that the armies of political correctness are out to steal Christmas. Right-wing pundit Burt Prelutsky, of the reliably unhinged Townhall.com, even seemed to recycle his columns from last year, blaming “my fellow Jews” for “pushing the multicultural, anti-Christian agenda.”

The truth is, what Jewish activism there is in this regard is usually devoted to monitoring the appropriateness of holiday displays and settings on public property, not in shopping centers or discount stores. That being said, the ADL urged SeaTac, a public entity, to restore its Christmas trees (and while they are at it, to “show respect for the Jewish community by allowing Chabad to display their menora”). If that’s anti-Christian, then Christians have never had it so good.

The war on Christmas was always a false issue, meant to further polarize a country already traumatized by its red-blue (and now, red-green) divides. Those who continue to wage it are the reactionary rear guard, who profit from a country less tolerant than it really is.

To them we say what we always say to tyrants who abhor diversity and would impose their religious beliefs on others: Happy Hanukka.