Part of what is so maddening about the story - a story that destroys the stereotypes both of an intransigent Netanyahu and of a moderate, flexible Abbas - is that Kerry knows the truth, and even so he continues to primarily blame Israel primarily for the failure of the Obama-era peace push. The recently surfaced recording of Kerry in Dubai last year blaming Israel alone is but the most recently publicized example.
The reporter of the Haaretz story, Amir Tibon, has been reporting on the failed talks for years. He co-wrote a very comprehensive article for the New Republic on the same topic in 2014.
In that article, he described a scene where Obama presented Erekat and Abbas with the sweetened plan that would give them a capital in Jerusalem:
The next day at the White House, Obama tried his luck with the Palestinian leader. He reviewed the latest American proposals, some of which had been tilted in Abbas’s direction. (The document would now state categorically that there would be a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem.) “Don’t quibble with this detail or that detail,” Obama said. “The occupation will end. You will get a Palestinian state. You will never have an administration as committed to that as this one.” Abbas and Erekat were not impressed.What happened next crystallizes the entire Palestinian position towards peace and having a state perfectly:
After the meeting, the Palestinian negotiator saw Susan Rice—Abbas’s favorite member of the Obama administration—in the hall. “Susan,” he said, “I see we’ve yet to succeed in making it clear to you that we Palestinians aren’t stupid.” Rice couldn’t believe it. “You Palestinians,” she told him, “can never see the fucking big picture.”Erekat is proud of Palestinian intransigence. He says that accepting a peace plan from the most pro-Palestinian president in history is "stupid." He and Abbas want more, far more, and will always respond with a "no."
And their favorite person in the Obama administration calls them on it. Susan Rice tells them that, once again, they are the ones who have sabotaged peace.
What more proof does one need that it is Abbas and his team who are the obstacles to peace?
Yet this richly documented story, like the Haaretz story, is ignored by a world that is emotionally invested in the lazy memes of "intransigent Likud" and "moderate, peace seeking Abbas."
The truth is right here. But no one wants to open their eyes.