Taking shots at former President Donald Trump, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates actually blamed the Abraham Accords, Mideast peace deals signed during the Trump administration, for creating the violence that has escalated between Hamas terrorists and Israel.

"I think there's very little prospect of a peace between them at this point," Gates told CBS's "Face the Nation," talking about violence erupting between the Palestinians and Israel. "I don't think there has been in quite a long time.

"And I think, in fact, one of the things that produced the breakthrough with the Abraham Accords between the Israelis and the Gulf states and others has been sort of essentially setting aside the Palestinian issue and moving on to a region that has changed in some pretty dramatic ways, which basically leaves the Palestinians out in the cold."

While Gates does admit Palestinians have "stymied" peace efforts by past U.S. presidents "time and time again," because "the Palestinians couldn't bring themselves to say yes," Gates backed the Obama administration's policy of ostensibly leading from behind – a strategy often mocked by former President Trump.

"I think sometimes the United States can achieve its objectives more effectively by playing a behind the scenes role than by being out in front," Gates added. "When the United States is out in front, it automatically creates lots of antibodies in a lot of different places. But if the U.S. is playing a constructive role behind the scenes, often it can be much more effective."

Gates also rebuked the Republican Party for being unrecognizable, after serving five presidents.

"I think in terms of the values and the principles that the Republican Party stood for under those five presidents are hard to find these days," he said.

Gates backed the anti-American mantra – oft-repeated by protesters and enemies – the U.S. is a "flawed country."

"It goes back to strategic communications," Gates told host John Dickerson. "How do you convey the message to the rest of the world? Yeah, we're a flawed country. We've always had flaws, but we're unique in that we're the only country that actually talks about those flaws and actually works to try and fix them.

"We are an aspirational country and we've kind of lost that message, it seems to me."

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