1. "Abbas acknowledged that Olmert had shown him a map proposing a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank – though he complained that the Israeli leader refused to give him a copy of the plan. He confirmed that Olmert "accepted the principle" of the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees – something no previous Israeli prime minister had done – and offered to resettle thousands in Israel. In all, Olmert's peace offer was more generous to the Palestinians than either that of Bush or Bill Clinton; it's almost impossible to imagine Obama, or any Israeli government, going further.

Abbas turned it down. "The gaps were wide," he said. "

Abbas rejects the notion that he should make any comparable concession – such as recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, which would imply renunciation of any large-scale resettlement of refugees.