The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

The breakdown in the nine-months peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was part of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s long-term plan to bypass bilateral negotiations in favor of pursuing statehood through the United Nations, according to a report by Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, based on a 65-page internal document the PA’s lead negotiator prepared in March.

Halevi’s conclusion: “The PA’s latest moves reflect the long-term strategy Abbas has been implementing, which involves using diplomatic means to obtain international recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state along the 1967 lines without the Palestinians having to make concessions on the fundamental issues of the conflict, particularly the refugee issue and what is called the ‘right of return.'”

Because the PA was able to ascend to “observer state” status at the UN in 2012, with no repercussions, Abbas  “feels confident in his ability to take unilateral steps without incurring serious damage,” the expert wrote. “The Palestinians believe they can use the diplomatic-legal arena to overcome Israel’s power and gradually subject it to diplomatic and economic pressures to unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank in a way similar to Israel’s unconditional withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.”