Obama's U.N. speech not about Palestine, but domestic politics

UNITED NATIONS - A last-ditch effort By U.S. officials to dissuade Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from seeking full membership for the state of Palestine through a U.N. Security Council vote has failed. The Americans are now resigned to the fact that it's too late for Abbas to back down and efforts are now focused on dealing with the day after.

Abbas met U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday following Obama's speech at the U.N. blasted by Palestinian officials as one of the worst they have heard.
Officials who met Obama on Wednesday and who watched him deliver his speech at the U.N. said they saw a "defeated man."

"He sounded like the Palestinians were occupying Israel and not the other way around," a senior Palestinian official said, echoing the sentiments of other angry members of the Palestinian delegation at the U.N. 

Palestinian officials said the meeting between Obama and Abbas was friendly, with each leader holdingon to his position and discussing the day after the vote.

A source close to the U.S. administration said Washington was worried that once Abbas fails to gain statehood membership at the U.N., Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza would take to the streets in anger.
"Why not, if the masses demonstrate peacefully, what does the world have to fear," responded one Palestinian official.

One could sense defeat and probably isolation among U.S. officials.Anger maybe for having failed.

Many observers saw Obama a shattered man as he delivered his speech at the U.N. He was tense and weak, and a disappointment.

An expert on the Middle East said Obama's speech "was part of the election campaign and was directed towards the Jewish lobby not to the heads of state and the General Assembly. It was full of factual mistakes and inaccuracies." 

Abbas may not have intentionally sought to isolate the U.S. and Israel by taking his cause to the larger international forum, but he has succeeded in  exposing the resentment by many international players to the U.S.' monopoly of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and how its bias to Israel has harmed American interests in the Arab world.

It was clear from French President Sarkozy's speech and peace proposal (talks with a one year timeline and upgrading the status of the Palestinians to non-member state at the U.N.) that other parties were willing to jump in and that from now on, the American's may find it difficult to alone dictate terms of peace.
The Quartet, consisting of the EU, the U.N., Russia and the U.S., may play a bigger role in mediating peace, despite their divided positions.
It is unclear whether Abbas' move would invite punitive actions by the mostly pro-Israel Congress and Israel itself. It is too early to say whether this was a calculated move by the Palestinian President or a gamble that would risk relations with the U.S. and some Arab states, and aid. 

It is obvious that this is the first time that Abbas publicly challenges the United States, and publicly invites other international players to have a go at resolving the decades-old conflict.
Whether Abbas' U.N. bid ails or not, the sides will ultimately return to the negotiating table. Israel will come under pressure to resume talks on the basis of Obama's principles that call for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with agreed swaps of lands between the sides.
"The court is in Israel's court now," a source close to the U.S. administration said.

As the emboldened Abbas walked into the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel after Obama's speech on Wednesday, a South Sudan delegate ululated in support.