So who is to blame for the lack of peace in the Middle East?

Is it Palestine, the settlement of Arabic nomads, encroaching on lands owned by Israel and clamoring to take the Eastern portion of Jerusalem as their capitol?

Is it Israel, for continuing to build settlements on the West Bank, and for just being Jews in the Middle East?

If you listen to President Trump, it’s both of them.

In a recent interview, Trump was asked about the peace process in the Middle East (You know, that thing he said would be easier to work out than Obamacare).

“Right now, I would say the Palestinians are not looking to make peace, they are not looking to make peace. And I am not necessarily sure that Israel is looking to make peace. So we are just going to have to see what happens,” Trump told Israel Hayom.

“I think both sides will have to make hard compromises to reach a peace agreement,” the president said.

Israel has been making compromises for decades, but none of it has been enough.

They’re a tiny nation, surrounded by enemies, all breathing their destruction. This notion that if they just stop building settlements to house their people, peace will rain down on the region is the blindest of hope.

No, if Israel were to commit to building no more settlements today, tomorrow they’d still be fending off missiles fired at them from Gaza, or Syria. There would still be imams on Middle Eastern TV demanding that the Jews be driven into the sea.

They would still be the “little Satan” and the United States would still be the “Great Satan.”

The most fundamental misunderstanding about the relationship between Israel and the rest of the Middle East is that it is just a land dispute. It’s not. That’s certainly part of it, as many consider the resettlement of Jews, then the declaration of Israel as a state in May 1948 an act of war. It was the first Jewish state in 2,000 years, and it held far more than simply political significance. The U.S. played a big part in that. Eleven minutes after Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion declared the state of Israel, President Harry Truman signed a letter of recognition, giving support to a new nation for a hated people.

That’s what Trump and every other American politician before him ignores.

Trump recently suggested that aid to Palestine would be withheld, should they choose not to return to peace talks with Israel.

I imagine the bipolar nature of the Trump policy has them reeling. Last year, the administration signed off on increased aid, but now he’s talking about taking it all away, unless they agree to talks with Israel.

He’s just throwing things against the wall, to see what sticks.