When US officials declare that Washington cannot want peace more than Israelis and Palestinians themselves, it’s a clear signal that the game is over — time to turn off the lights and hope for the best.

Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell were the last in a long line of US officials to invoke this assessment as a means to rationalize their failure to bring an end to Israel’s occupation and enable the establishment of a Palestinian state at peace with Israel.

Despite the current crisis atmosphere, we are not there … yet. This is no thanks to Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose commitment these last nine months appears to be limited to accommodate US Secretary of State John Kerry just enough so as not to be blamed for his failure.

Even this intention, adopted by each in a zero-sum effort to escape Washington’s wrath, appears to have weakened in the escalating crisis precipitated by Netanyahu's decision to postpone release of the last batch of Palestinian prisoners agreed upon with Kerry last July. Abu Mazen's refusal to agree to continue discussions beyond April and his subsequent moves in the direction of the UN despite commitments to the contrary have added to Kerry’s mounting pile of troubles.