Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday he would not pursue a two-state solution in the Middle East today if he were president. "I don't think the conditions exist for that today," the Florida Republican and presidential candidate said during a question-and-answer session at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York. "That's the ideal outcome, but the conditions for a two-state solution at this moment do not exist." Rubio blamed a disorganized and irresponsible Palestinian government for the stalemate with Israel on statehood. He also said the Palestinians had scuttled two prior offers for peace with their Jewish neighbors. "They teach their children that it's a glorious thing to kill Jews," he said.

Rubio addressed a range of hotspots with moderator Charlie Rose after delivering a 20-minute speech that outlined the three major pillars of his foreign policy doctrine: American strength, the protection of the American economy in a globalized world and advocating proudly for American values abroad.

"Today, like never before, foreign policy is domestic policy," he said, underlining what will be a likely theme of his 2016 presidential candidacy.

He slammed much of President Barack Obama's foreign policy record, predicting that a deal to lift sanctions on Iran would cause a "cascade of nuclear proliferation" that could force Israel to "take bold action" and make war with Iran more likely.

Rubio said his first priority as president would be to undo the sequester that sliced the Pentagon's budget and return to 2012 baseline funding levels.

"By modernizing and innovating we can ensure that we never send our troops into a fair fight, but rather always equip them with the upper hand," he said.

He called on Congress to give Obama trade promotion authority and criticized Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton for failing to "stand up to special interests and support free trade."

Clinton has avoided taking a firm position on the legislation, only vaguely saying during a stop in New Hampshire, "Any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security."

A champion of interventionism abroad, Rubio rejected that the United States should be the "world's policeman," but said the administration could have prevented much of the momentum gained by the Islamic State if it acted sooner and more aggressively.

But on the 2003 Iraq invasion and the intelligence failure over the absence of weapons of mass destruction – the question that entangled likely GOP contender Jeb Bush earlier this week – Rubio fell in line with mainstream opinion of both parties today.

"Not only would I not have been in favor of it, President Bush would not have been in favor of it," Rubio said.



