John Kerry

The agreement was for Palestine to not join UN bodies for nine months; in exchange, Israel would release 104 prisoners. Israel did not hold up its end of the bargain, refusing to release the final 26 unless further concessions were granted to Israel.

Abbas did not "link it" to the prisoner release - this was exactly what the agreement was, "you release prisoners and we hold off on securing our place in the UN." Nor was it a bad move by Abbas - Israel is the party that failed to carry through, here. There's no reason for Abbas to do the Israelis a favor by pretending the deal is still in effect, after the Israelis scuttled the deal.

Kerry, of course, has to pretend the two are "equally at fault" - It's that faux neutrality thing that you see so often from the media as well, "pretending both sides are equal makes me unbiased." But Israel is the one that reneged on the deal it had agreed to, and asked for more just to continue what it was supposed to do anyway. It's on them.