Commentary: Boycotting Israel won't end the Mideast tragedy

JERUSALEM - Airbnb recently announced that it is boycotting tiny Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The ostensible reason for the boycott is that these are contested territories. The Abkhazians and the South Ossetians, with Russian backing, have seceded from Georgia and declared their independence, moves rejected by the international community.

But Airbnb's real motive for stigmatizing a forlorn corner of the world, with a population of under a quarter-million, is to prove that the house-sharing company has no special animus toward Israel.

In November, Airbnb decided that residents