This year’s annual Saban Forum in Washington evolved into a long match of diplomatic ping-pong. The opening serve was delivered Dec. 4 by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. The ball was returned to the Israelis the next day by US Secretary of State John Kerry. On Dec. 6, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to join in, appearing via video to deliver the last word and final shot. This put the ball back in the American court, but at the last minute, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made an appearance to get in what was ultimately the final word.

Match point, however, was played by top American and Israeli officials behind the scenes, who said that at least on the diplomatic front, nothing new is expected between Israelis and Palestinians for the next 14 months. In other words, to borrow a favorite quote of former Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, “We’re not being threatened by anything good.”

“It’s over,” said one senior American official, who had participated in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during the past few years and spoke on condition of anonymity. “The game is over, and all that is left for the American side to do is to hold a mirror up before the two parties. That way they can see what a huge chance they missed out on and the enormity of the risk that is currently facing them.”

It's becoming clear now that contrary to various media reports and insinuations from the prime minister’s office, Netanyahu’s visit to Washington in November and the lengthy talk he had with President Barack Obama were hardly the huge success they were made out to be. Al-Monitor has since learned that Obama was originally supposed to address the Saban Forum this year, but decided against it because he had nothing new of importance to share. Furthermore, he had been disappointed by the meager, if not demeaning, bundle of gestures that Netanyahu had offered to make to the Palestinians. Obama therefore decided against making an appearance.