On Friday, virtually everyone left the United Nations General Assembly Hall before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his address. The day before, they cheered Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas' speech that was piped in on video.
Robert Knight, a columnist for The Washington Times, says things are truly "upside-down."
"The world doesn't just have a double standard; it doesn't have any standards at all," he laments. "If Bibi Netanyahu, who has stood firm against this massive world opinion against Israel, is pictured as the bad guy, and a guy like Abbas – tied to a terrorist group – is held up as a hero, then something's clearly very wrong."
Ahead of his meeting with President Donald Trump to possibly broker a ceasefire agreement and end the war in Gaza., the prime minister vowed to "finish the job" of eliminating Hamas in Gaza and slammed other nations for recognizing Palestinian statehood.
Trump has not elaborated on the precise terms, but his proposal reportedly centers on three main points: securing the release of all hostages, eliminating the Hamas threat to Israel, and expanding humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Knight says the president has no right to tell Israel that it cannot annex the West Bank.
"This is beyond a legal right of one nation to dictate to another," he tells AFN. "We can only strongly urge them to take steps that we would prefer, but they're their own country. It's a sovereign nation. Israel will do what it has to do to save itself."
As for the possibility of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair being named to run a transitional Gaza authority once the war is over, Knight is not sure what to expect.
"Tony Blair is a mixed bag because he's very liberal, but he also did back the U.S. when we were involved in the Iraq war and took a lot of heat for it," the columnist notes. "Whether he's up to brokering the peace and running a Gaza government is anybody's guess."
The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority administers portions of the West Bank, which Israel captured along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war.
The Palestinians want all three territories to form their envisioned state, but Netanyahu maintains that would reward Hamas.
