The Obama Administration's bid to relaunch an Israeli-Palestinian peace process is falling apart faster than you can say settlement freeze — in no small part because President Barack Obama began his effort by saying settlement freeze.

On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton found herself struggling to persuade skeptical Arab foreign ministers to see the silver lining in Israel's "No, but ..." answer to the U.S. demand that Israel halt all construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

At least Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was offering to restrain settlement activity, Clinton said, but Arab leaders, whom Obama had hoped would make reciprocal gestures toward normalization of ties with Israel, were not buying.

For Arab League secretary Amr Moussa, Clinton's message offered a grim outlook for the Administration's peace efforts: "I still wait until we have our meetings and decide what we are going to do," Moussa reportedly said on Monday in Morocco, where Clinton was meeting with Arab leaders. "But failure is in the atmosphere all over."

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