Mr. President, back away from this supposed opportunity to strut your deal-making chops

The American Enterprise Institute's Marc Theissen puts some numbers on the futility of a president - any president, really, and they all succumb to the temptation to try it - seeking to be The One Who Achieved Peace Between Israel And The Palestinians.

It looks like a particularly tantalizing project to DJT, since he loves to be seen as a deal-maker nonpareil.

But he'd be wise to consider this before embarking on that perennial fool's errand:

polling data show that Palestinians are the most radicalized, anti-peace population in the entire Muslim world.

According to a 2014 Pew Research Center poll, support for suicide bombings has declined significantly across the Muslim world in recent years – everywhere except the Palestinian territories.

For example, in Pakistan just 3% of the Muslim population now says that suicide bombings are “often” or “sometimes justified”.  In the Palestinian territories it is 46% – nearly half – which is the highest among 21 countries polled.

In Gaza, territory controlled by Hamas, support for suicide bombings is even higher, at 62%.

Or take the recent spate of knife attacks by Palestinian terrorists targeting Israeli civilians and police. A March 2016 poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey (PSR) found that a 58% majority of Palestinians support knife attacks (which the poll notes had dropped from 67% in a poll three months earlier). In Gaza, support knife attacks was 82% (down from 85% three months earlier).

The poll also notes that “a majority in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip continues to support an armed intifada and continues to believe that such an intifada would help Palestinians achieve national rights in ways that negotiations could not.” In the West Bank, 60% hold this view while in Gaza it is held by 75% of the population.

The poll also found that “a slim majority of 51% supports and 48% oppose the two-state solution. Three months ago, 45% supported and 54% opposed this solution.” So essentially only half of the Palestinian population is ready to live side-by-side in peace with Israel.

The December 2015 PSR poll (the one taken three months earlier) had another interesting finding: “only 39% [of Palestinians] support a mutual recognition of national identity of Israel as the state for the Jewish people and Palestine as the state for the Palestinian people and 61% oppose it.”

How is Israel supposed to make peace with people who support suicide bombings and knife attacks against innocent people and do not recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state?
The answer: They can’t.
The fact is Palestinians still refuse to recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish homeland, a Jewish state, in any boundary. They support terror and violence over negotiations and compromise. That is the true core of the conflict.
It’s not about settlements. Israel withdrew all 21 settlements in Gaza. In fact, Israel withdrew from Gaza entirely. And today Gaza is the most radical part of Palestinian territories. More than 8 in 10 Gazans support knife attacks on innocent Israelis.
Why is this? Because Palestinian leaders fill their people with hatred for Israel every single day. They name youth soccer teams after terrorists who blew up innocent Israeli citizens and erect statues to them. They produce children’s shows that show Jews as subhuman. As Prime Minister Netanyahu pointed out during Trump’s visit, they pay the families of suicide bombers who kill Israelis.

President Abbas – the so-called “moderate” – has said, “We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem.” One of his advisors urged Palestinians to “slit the throats of Israelis wherever you find them.” 

And the Pew poll shows that the younger they are, the more likely Palestinians are to hold these views.

Just stick to supporting Israel, Mr. President, and don't follow your predecessors down the road of pointless folly.