By continuously condemning Israel and encouraging Palestinian maximalist demands, the U.N. harms prospects for peace. It only makes matters worse by giving terrorists such as Hamas a free pass. Thursday was a major test for the United Nations in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process and it failed miserably.
While some have declared that yesterday was a dark day at the UN, it was actually rather illuminating. Though the United Nations has passed more than 500 resolutions condemning Israel, it could not muster the strength to pass a single resolution condemning Hamas. And while Fatah is blockading Hamas in Gaza, it is defending the terrorist group at the United Nations.
Airbnb has thus applied a standard to the West Bank that it fails to apply to any other disputed territory in the world. Moreover, the company’s decision did not suggest that it would delist properties in Palestinian areas of the West Bank, only Jewish ones. Accordingly, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan said he would ask senior U.S. officials to hold Airbnb accountable for violating state and federal laws that bar discrimination and restrict boycotts.
Netanyahu’s visit to Oman must be viewed now as a potentially positive step for peace in the Middle East. But it is unclear how much Oman has to offer. Only time, and the elusive details of the Trump peace plan, will tell.
I don’t expect any of that to come to pass while President Trump is in the White House. But he has fixed what his predecessor had broken. And he’s made clear that Palestinians can have a state of their own, but only if they recognize that a two-state solution implies two states for two peoples, both willing to peacefully co-exist. That may not amount to the “deal of the century,” but it’s more than any past peace process achieved.