 Hi, and by July 15th the Palestinians will have presumably submitted their application to the UN for membership. What do they stand to gain by this or what do they stand to lose by this? Palestinians have decided that the UN is really the only way that they can achieve statehood under the current circumstances. They're extremely frustrated with the Obama administration's policy towards the Israeli Palestinian negotiations. They're extremely frustrated with the Israeli government and don't believe that the Israeli government is going to sign an agreement with them, which actually leads to a Palestinian state. So this is sort of an act of desperation by the Palestinian leadership to take their case to the international community, to the United Nations, where they have a lot more sympathy. What they stand to gain really is a symbolic victory of achieving full membership. Full membership will allow them really to take Israel to the International Court of Justice, which they're unable to do at the moment. They're trying to use their full membership status in the UN to pressure Israel to make more concessions in future negotiations, to try to leverage a different kind of status at the UN as leverage against Israel. But at the same time, there's a lot that could go wrong with this strategy. First of all, the United States has made very clear that they oppose this strategy. President Obama has told the Palestinians that no symbolic victory at the UN or leverage against Israel is going to give them a state. The only way the Palestinians can get a state is through a direct agreement with the Israelis. There's uncertainty in Congress. There's discomfort in Congress with continuing to support the Palestinians under these conditions. Let's not forget that the United States provides about $600 million a year in annual aid to the Palestinians. And so there's some opposition in Congress to continuing that aid if the Palestinians continue with their strategy to try to gain statehood through the United Nations. Another problem the Palestinians face is what happens the day after. They get the symbolic victory, but nothing really changes on the ground. It's not going to lead to Israel withdrawing from the West Bank. It's not going to lead to a change in Israeli settlement policy. The opposite could happen where Israel actually takes punitive measures against the Palestinians, possibly increasing housing construction in the West Bank, and possibly tightening restrictions on Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza. So there are a lot of downsides to this policy, this strategy as well for the Palestinians. Why does the Obama administration oppose this? The Palestinian strategy puts the administration in a very difficult position because the administration has defined creating an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel as a national interest of the United States. Now this vote in the UN is going to force the administration to use a veto and be on the record opposing the creation of a Palestinian state. So what challenges does Israel face on the UN vote on Palestinian statehood? However this plays out, Israel's going to be in a difficult situation. If the Palestinians do achieve an upgraded status at the United Nations, it could increase pressure on Israel to withdraw from the territories. It could increase pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction, and it could speed up efforts to delegitimize Israel's existence through the boycott, divestment, and sanctions strategy that the Palestinians have been pursuing. If the United States uses a veto in the Security Council and blocks the resolution, Israel could also face some challenges, first in terms of its relations with the United States. Let's not forget that the U.S. used a veto back in February blocking a anti-Israel resolution in the Security Council, and that caused tremendous stress and tension between the Israeli government and the U.S. administration. The Israelis also fear mass protests on their borders should the UN vote fail. We already saw a glimpse of this back in May when Palestinian protesters rushed the Israeli border in the West Bank and also on the Israeli-Syrian border. So that kind of mass uprising by unarmed protesters could put the Israeli military in a very difficult situation, which will have very significant diplomatic costs if Israel is caught in a confrontation with unarmed protesters. So either way, Israel is in a difficult situation. How does Hamas figure into this whole equation? Hamas doesn't really buy into the whole strategy of taking the Palestinian statehood issue to the United Nations, but they don't necessarily oppose it either. They're really focused right now on reaching a compromise deal with President Abbas over the composition of a unity government, over a technocratic government which will oversee Palestinian governance through a transitionary phase to elections sometime next year. But Hamas really is now focused on these internal reconciliation issues rather than the symbolic nature of a Palestinian statehood vote. Hi. I'm Malcolm. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you.