Kerry leaves empty-handed

No one really wants to call it a failure, but John Kerry's mission was... a failure.

US Secretary of State John Kerry wound up his whirlwind 72-hours of shuttle diplomacy by announcing at Ben-Gurion airport Sunday afternoon that "real progress" was achieved, and that with a little more work Israeli-Palestinian talks could be re-started.

Kerry said the sides were working to get to the "right place," and that the large gaps that existed at the beginning of his efforts were narrowed.

"There are a few details, but I am sure we are on the right track," he said after holding three meetings since Thursday afternoon with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, and three more with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman and then Ramallah.

...

"We are working very, very hard," he said. "I know it is worth it. I know progress when I see it. That is what is important, and that is what will bring me back here."

Kerry declined to say where progress was made, and also would not set a deadline.

 Well, at least he wasn't foolish enough to set a deadline, but 'progress'? I don't believe there was any.