and david pollock, a former senior advisor on the middle east at the state department. and now a visiting fellow at the washington institute for near east policy welcome to the "newshour" to all three of you. >> pleasure. shibley telhami, let me start with you. why is today mahmoud abbas saying he's going to go to the u.n. seeking recognition for the palestinians. why now and why are the israelis so opposed? >> probably two issues. one, if you look at it from his point of view and his constituents point of view, he's being asked to extend negotiations without getting ruts, something he said he wouldn't do. he needs to look tough to constituents. it in some ways makes it easier for him to agree tomorrow or the next day to extend the negotiations, but the second thing is, palestinians always feel like they're being taken for granted. there's an asymmetry of power favoring israel, and in this case there was the recent prisoner which had been agreed upon from the beginning. it's interesting. there's a little symmetry here because when secretary kerry asked both sides to com