The Christmas holidays always bring conflict into my life.

I share the same tribulations most others feel when it comes to Christmas: I'm concerned about the poor, the homeless and children who won't have a "Merry" Christmas because of poverty and neglect.

I'm concerned about non-Christians being bullied during the annual season of Christian celebration. Christmas isn't just one day. It's a season, which can be difficult for Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians.

And there's also the political battle that resurrects itself every Christmas season with Jesus. It's a debate over whether we can say "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas."

Many argue if you say "Happy Holidays," you're not American, or Christian. Although I am Christian — a true Christian whose mother is from Bethlehem, the home city of Jesus himself — I make it a point to be considerate of others, and say "Happy Holidays."

That's the way I am. Intentionally provocative. Having covered Chicago City Hall for 17 years, and being at the forefront of the Middle East journalism debate fighting for the rights of Arabs and Muslims, I struggle to champion the rights of Christians in Israel. It's a struggle not shared or even understood by Christian Americans.

American Christians are bullied into silence by Israel. The suffering of Christians in Israel is verboten. Israel has America in a political headlock. It herds the U.S. Congress. It bullies the mainstream news media into silence, and defames any American who tries to raise the topic.

But attacking Arabs and Muslims is fair game.

Hillary Clinton recently declared that Christians in the Arab and Muslim world are facing "genocide."

She was specifically talking about the Christians targeted and killed by radical Islamic terrorists like al-Qaida, ISIS and other extremist groups.

But she was silent, for political reasons, on how Christians are being oppressed by Israel, the "Jewish State."

You see, in America, the "Christian" country, it's easy to attack and criticize Muslims and Islam. It's unchristian-like to do so, but it is common and frequent. It's forbidden to criticize Israel.

Clinton doesn't care about Christians. She knows she can milk the issue for votes, pandering to the uneducated perceptions Americans have that only the Arab and Muslim world are oppressing Christians.

She was in New Hampshire campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president when she made the limiting remark.

It's true. Radicals are targeting Christians. The ISIS vision of a "Caliphate" doesn't include "infidels" and no one is more of an infidel to them than Christians.

But, it's not just Christians. These terrorists, who have wrapped themselves around Islam falsely claiming to represent the Islamic religion, are also targeting and killing Muslims.

It's almost like Clinton doesn't care about the Muslims when she says the terrorists are killing Christians.

Why no mention of the suffering of Christians under Israel's occupation in the Holy Land, especially during this Christmas season?

Christians, like my family living in Bethlehem — Beit Jala, Ramallah, Taybeh, and Beit Sahour — are being oppressed and bullied, beaten and even killed by Israel's soldiers and the terrorist Israeli settlers.

It's not just Christians in the "Israeli Occupied Territories." It's Christians who have "Israeli citizenship" living in Nazareth and other cities inside the 1949 armistice lines — the Green Line — in what is now called "Israel."

The Israelis are discriminating not just against Muslims, but against Christians, too. Israel's oppression may not rise to the level of "genocide," but I think it's bad enough when it Israel takes our lands, expels us from our homes, chokes us in confinement and limits our civil rights.

I have been fighting to take control of my family land outside of Bethlehem now for more than a decade. Israel, supposedly the "safe haven" for Christians, is blocking that land. They want to take it from me.

My land is just a small part of the oppression Christians in Israel face. Our Christian lands are being taken by Israel's government and converted into settlements for Jews only.

Israel just announced this week it will build 55,000 more Jewish-only homes around East Jerusalem and Bethlehem on lands owned by Christians.

You won't hear Hillary Clinton, or any other candidate for political office touch that reality of Christian suffering.

American leaders don't want to upset Israel. Why confuse the already confused Christian Americans more?

Happy Holidays, people!

Ray Hanania is an award-winning Palestinian American columnist, managing editor of The Arab Daily News at www.TheArabDailyNews.com, and writer at Al Jazeera English. Follow him on Twitter @RayHanania. To find out more about Ray Hanania and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Jeffrey Zeldman