The biggest documentary leak in the history of the Middle East conflict has shown that the Palestinians were willing to make huge concessions to secure "a country with limitations".
At one point, Saeb Erekat, the PLO chief negotiator, acknowledged that the wins for his side had been so poor that he risked becoming an embarrassment.
"Nineteen years of promises and you haven't made up your minds what you want to do with us... We delivered on our road map obligations... But no, they can't even give a six-month freeze to give me a figleaf.
"What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak," he told George Mitchell, Barack Obama's Middle East envoy.
But the concessions continued. The Palestinians were willing to allow Israeli settlements around East Jerusalem and were also prepared to consider "creative ways" to solve the problem of Haram al-Sharif or the Temple Mount.
But the Israelis were unmoved
When Mr Erekat asked Ms Livni: "Short of your jet fighters in my sky and your army on my territory, can I choose where I secure external defence?". She replied: "No. In order to create your state you have to agree in advance with Israel – you have to choose not to have the right of choice afterwards."
Later, Mr Erekat admitted that "the Palestinians know they will have a country with limitations.
"They won't have an army, airforce or navy."
The 1,600 confidential records of hundreds of meetings between Palestinian, Israeli and US leaders were leaked to the Qatar-based satellite TV channel al-Jazeera over several months and then shared with the Guardian.
They stretch from the period of negotiations under US president Bill Clinton in 2000 to private discussions last year involving senior officials and politicians in the Obama administration.
The earliest document a memo from September 1999 that suggests heeding the advice of the Rolling Stones: "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you might find you can get what you need."
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