An abstract of the NY Times' extensive autopsy of "How Nine Months of Mideast Talks Ended in Disarray":
Mr. Netanyahu refused to risk alienating Israel’s right wing by restraining construction in West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements; about 13,000 new units moved forward during the talks. Mr. Abbas, looking for a dignified exit from the public stage and furious over the settlement building, never responded to the ideas Mr. Kerry’s team had formulated for a framework to guide further negotiations.
Mr. Kerry condemned the construction, asking in a television interview, "How can you say we’re planning to build in the place that will eventually be Palestine?"
Added another American official, "As [Abbas] comes to the end of his life and certainly the end of his term in office, he’s fed up. His experience in the last nine months, of settlements gone wild, has just, I think, convinced him that he doesn’t have a partner."
Neither do we.