White House sources tell Kerry to wrap up Mid East peace bid

Some circles around US Secretary of State, including inside the White House, are quoted by the Washington Post as believing the time is near for him to say “Enough!” of his Mid East peace effort. Some high administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity say Kerry risks being seen as trying too hard at the expense of other pressing international issues, even perhaps his reputation. “A time will come where he has to go out and own failure.” For now, they say, Kerry needs to “lower the volume and see how things unfold.”
Kerry has made 11 trips to Israel in the past year and shuttled endlessly between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. This week, the process blew up when Abbas filed applications for a “Palestinian state” to join 15 UN agencies, in violation of his prior pledge to the US Secretary and Israel. Israel punished him Thursday with a string of sanctions against the Palestinian Authority after canceling the fourth round of jailed Palestinian releases.