President Obama said in an interview that he has failed to advance the Middle East peace process “the way I wanted.”
“I have not been able to move the peace process forward in the Middle East the way I wanted,” he told WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington on Sunday, in response to a question on whether there was “anything you believe you failed at, not because Congress wouldn’t play ball, but that rests squarely on your shoulders and has you desperate to get that second term to atone for it?”
“There were a bunch of things that didn’t get done that I think are important…” the president answered. “The things I can do without Congress tend to be in the foreign policy area. In that area I have not been able to move the peace process forward in the Middle East the way I wanted. It’s something we focused on very early, but the truth of the matter is that the parties, ultimately, they’ve got to want it as well. So we’ve got a lot of work to do…”
Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s position on the Israel-Palestinian peace “process” is not fundamentally different from Obama’s. Last October his campaign stated: “With regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mitt Romney will reject any measure that would frustrate direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He will make clear to the Palestinians that the unilateral attempt to decide issues that are designated for final negotiations is unacceptable.”
But, much like Obama, Romney is committed to the idea of the 2-state solution.
JTA content was used in this report.