"The danger of peace has been averted," was the message that one of the Likud Party's senior ministers texted on April 1 to some of his associates shortly after it became apparent that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had submitted a request to be inducted into 15 UN bodies with a state status. Publicly, this minister actually backs Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and "supports" the two-state solution. Internally, however, this minister knows full well that anyone caught voting or supporting the compromises and proposals entertained by US Secretary of State John Kerry will pay a stiff price in the upcoming Likud primary.

So any life-seeking right-wing or centrist politician in Israel knows that things are better off this way. Peace or negotiation with the Palestinians is a sure recipe for trouble at home. So who needs this headache? Senior Likud ministers are asking the question, which is just as apt for Kerry. His headache this week was even greater than those of Israel's right-wing ministers. He had not only the Israelis, but also the Palestinians in his aching head.

Everything that has happened to Kerry's initiative this week was smeared in block letters on every wall en route to this impasse that we have just reached. What we had here was a foretold chronicle of a breakdown on one hand, and a sweeping and somewhat childish enthusiasm with which Kerry sank his teeth into the negotiations on the other. Had Kerry studied and examined the history of the last 20 years, he would have discovered that what he had undertaken was a mission impossible. Nobody has ever returned alive from it. Even actor Tom Cruise would not have been able to connect these two intransigent parties. In the end, even with the best of intentions, this was like getting blood from a stone or trying to mix water and oil.

Similarly to all his predecessors, Kerry's problem is that he thinks in logical terms. His logic is an American, cosmopolitan one; it's logic that makes sense. And this kind of logic is a scarce commodity in the Middle East. When he sits down separately with each one of the parties, Kerry emerges enthused and imbued with faith. Going on and on, Netanyahu expatiates about the need for peace, declaring inside the room his willingness to pay the painful price for peace, and so on and so forth. Mahmoud Abbas does exactly the same thing. Yet when it comes to taking action or making concessions, the whole thing implodes.