A LARGELY UNTOLD CHRISTMAS STORY - AT 9:19 A.M. ET:  The politically correct media usually screens out stories like this, but the truth is coming through:  Christians are leaving Bethlehem, not because of "Israeli oppression made possible by the imperialist, capitalist Cheneyites in Washington," but because Muslims don't want them there.  From outstanding reporter Benny Avni, in the New York Post:

Christians are fleeing the town of Christ's birth, and the much-reported hardship that Israel inflicts on residents of the West Bank town has little to do with it. It's the same reality across the Arab world: rising Islamism pushes non-Muslims away.

Islamists frown on real-estate ownership by non-Muslims -- Christian, Jew or anything else. And though the secular Palestinian Authority still controls the West Bank, the clout of groups like Hamas is growing: Even in Bethlehem, where followers of history's most famous baby once thrived, Christians are ceding the land.

And...

Fifty years ago, Christians made up 70 percent of Bethlehem's population; today, about 15 percent...

...But, again, the story's the same in Egypt, Iraq and elsewhere in the Mideast. Practically the only place in the region where the Christian population is growing is in Israel.

Church groups appear to be silent on the matter:

Israeli Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh wrote recently that, before Pope Benedict visited the Holy Land in May, a Christian merchant told him jokingly, "The next time a pope comes to visit . . . he will have to bring his own priest with him [to] pray in a church because most Christians would have left by then."

A researcher of Arab and Muslim affairs, Jonathan Dahoah Halevy, says Islamists think that "soft" Christians around the world wouldn't intervene on behalf of their brethren in places like Bethlehem. Benedict's visit seems to bear that out: He criticized Israeli policies while ignoring the crucial role Islamists play in chasing Christians out of town.

Finally:

So there may or may not be room at the inn when you arrive at the little town of Bethlehem, but the innkeeper is unlikely to be a Christian.

COMMENT:  Why did I have to read about this in the New York Post?  Nothing about it in The Times, or on CNN.  I guess Christiane Amanpour didn't notice. 

And, of course, the National Council of Churches, which always does the job for whatever left-wing cause is around, has nothing to say.  That "council" is to religion what Hugo Chavez is to democracy.

So keep the Christians of Bethlehem in mind this season.  Our silence isn't helping them.

December 24, 2009