He announced last Friday his plans to go to the Security Council in a quest for Palestinian membership in the United Nations and international legal recognition of statehood, putting Mr. Obama in the position of having to stand in the way. Peace negotiations collapsed last year following Netanyahu’s decision not to extend a 10-month partial freeze on construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank. To contact the reporters on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in United Nations at fjackson@bloomberg.net; Bill Varner in United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
– Palestine won’t push for an immediate Security Council vote on its push for full UN membership, because it doesn’t appear to have the requisite nine votes—even if the US weren’t promising to veto the move. “We will give some time to the Security Council,” a Palestinian negotiator told reporters, according to Bloomberg. “If we fail, we will keep knocking on the door. We do not have a time limit." The US and Israel are asking council members to abstain from voting in order to spare Palestine a definitive defeat. Israel, for example, has convinced Nigeria to stay neutral, even though it recognizes Palestinian statehood bilaterally. But US opposition to the move has come at a cost: the US may have to give up its role as sole arbiter of peace in the Middle East, the New York Times observes, because it’s seen as too close to an increasingly isolated Israel.