A subscription-only editorial in Friday's Wall Street Journal notes that the International Red Cross has finally relented and offered membership to Israel -- sort of.

After almost six decades of rejection, Israel saw the road cleared yesterday for its emergency and disaster relief organization to join the International Red Cross. The price of admission was relinquishing its symbol, the Red Star of David.

Instead, the Red Cross approved a new "neutral" symbol -- a Red Crystal, which Israel must adopt to become a member, possibly next spring. The Star of David may still be used at home, and on foreign missions it can be put inside the Crystal, provided the host country agrees.

Israeli diplomats are celebrating the Crystal as a great victory. If that's a victory, we'd hate to see a defeat. Even this compromise, which was opposed by most Muslim countries, came only after the American Red Cross withheld its contributions to protest Israel's exclusion from the international body.

I've got a better idea -- why don't they just make patches that the Israeli relief workers can wear. You could make the patch in the shape of a Star of David. Heck, it wouldn't even have to be red, you could make it, say, yellow.

If you're donating money this year, give it to the Salvation Army, not the Red Cross.