Rove: Middle East Peace Won’t Be Done Simply Because an American President Wants to Get It Done

EXCERPT:

ROVE: "Look, I think from the Palestinians perspective you hit it exactly right. They were expecting the worst and they haven’t gotten as -- as bad as they thought. So there is, you know, some willingness, there's openness to talk to them. Look, he is a deal maker. But there is a cautionary note in being a deal maker. This deal, Middle Eastern peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis will not get done simply because an American president wants to get it done. It will only get done if the Palestinians and the Israelis see it in their interest to arrive in at an accommodation. And there are big thorny questions you. You touched on one of them -- the settlements. The Palestinians object to the settlements on the West Bank. The question is, do they want to accept what they got or try to roll them back. Do we have a one-state or two-state solution. We’ve had a policy for the last 20 years of believing that ultimately the answer is a two-state solution; Israel with defensible borders and a Palestinian state. President Trump said, 'Well I may be in favor of a one-state solution', which not really clear what that means. We also have a huge issue with the Palestinians and that is their continuing support albeit in an indirect way most of the time but an direct in some instances for a culture of terrorism. The indirect way is by fostering an education system that causes young people to hate Israel and in a direct way by funding the families of terrorists. And this is going to be a domestic issue here in the United States."