AUDIE CORNISH, Host:
The United States and Israel strongly oppose the bid. NPR's Ari Shapiro has this report on the diplomatic quandary the Palestinian bid poses for the Obama administration.
ARI SHAPIRO: Each time President Obama has spoken at the United Nations, the push for Mideast peace has been one of his key themes. Last year he told the audience:
SHAPIRO: When we come back here next year we could have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations. An independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel.
SHAPIRO: Ben Rhodes is deputy national security advisor for strategic communications.
CORNISH: Our fundamental baseline position is that those actions are not going to lead to a Palestinian state, and that we are going to oppose efforts to deal with issues that should be negotiated between the parties at the U.N.
SHAPIRO: But many of America's closest allies support the Palestinians' bid. And that makes this vote, and the promised veto, a messy diplomatic situation.
DAVID MAKOVSKY: It's now drama time.
SHAPIRO: David Makovsky directs the Mideast Peace Project at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
MAKOVSKY: The brinkmanship of the Mideast is coming to the northeast, as they try to hammer out an alternative resolution that would avoid some of the maximalism and try to find a way to get out of this crisis.
SHAPIRO: Administration officials spent the last week in the region trying to head this off at the pass. So far it looks like they failed. Republicans blame President Obama. John Bolton was President Bush's ambassador to the U.N. and he says the U.S. could have done far more to avert this crisis months ago.
CORNISH: The impression that's left diplomatically by that kind of inaction is that the administration is really not that opposed to what the Palestinians are trying to do.
SHAPIRO: The White House says it has been totally clear and consistent about its opposition. But Bolton says the administration could have taken a page from his 1989 playbook, when the Palestinian Liberation Organization sought international recognition.
BOLTON: We threatened to cut off funding to any U.N. organization that enhanced the status of the PLO. Worked like a charm. It stopped the PLO dead in its tracks. That was the end of the effort for 20 years. If the administration were to do the same thing here, I think it would have the same effect.
SHAPIRO: At the White House, deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes was asked whether he would consider that approach.
RHODES: Until we know what the precise proposal is, we're not capable of speaking about potential consequences.
SHAPIRO: Last week a Republican won a heavily Jewish, heavily Democratic House district in a special election in New York. Democratic former congressman Robert Wexler believes the accusation that President Obama does not fully support Israel is false and malicious. He now directs the F. Daniel Abraham Center for Mideast Peace.
ROBERT WEXLER: This is the political season, and there are those in the political community that see an opportunity and seek to exploit it.
SHAPIRO: He says heading into this U.N. meeting, the best thing the U.S. can do is help create a day-after scenario, to get Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table once this storm subsides.
WEXLER: It would be in essence making, you know, lemonade out of lemons, no doubt, but I do foresee a possible scenario in which the American administration can assist the Palestinians and the Israelis, to mediate their positions and possibly move forward in a constructive fashion.
SHAPIRO: Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.
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