PA Chairman Abbas after his return from the United Nations status upgrade bid. Photo: Screenshot.

Equipped with upgraded nonmember observer state status at the United Nations, the Palestinians are plotting a series of steps to isolate Israel—including filing war crimes charges in international courts, mass demonstrations, and an end to security cooperation with the Jewish state—according to interviews Palestinian Authority officials gave the Associated Press.

The coming year “will see a new Palestinian political track,” Hussam Zumlot, an aide to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, told AP.

“There will be new rules in our relationship with Israel and the world,” Zumlot said.

Current prospects for peace indeed look dim, as only 28.2% of Israelis believe that Israel has a partner for peace in negotiations with the Palestinians, according to a recently released by Gal Hadash.

Yet, Israel in 2013 is committed to “the re-emergence of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev, told AP.

“There is no substitute for direct talks,” Regev said. “You’re not going to make peace in resolutions at the United Nations or other international forums.”

If peace talks were to take place, 76 percent of all Israelis believe that not even a withdrawal to the 1967 lines or a division of Jerusalem would solve the conflict with the Palestinians, according to a survey released by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

On Dec. 20—the same day PA officials detailed their isolationist strategy to the AP—two Palestinians attacked an Israel Defense Forces soldier at the A-Ram checkpoint near Ramallah, spraying him with tear gas and taking his rifle, Israel Hayom reported. The soldier sustained minor injuries.