daniel kurtzer, start with you. today we saw this press continuing by the u.s. other western officials to try to head off a vote. explain what has them so concerned. what's going on? >> well, i think there are two concerns that the administration is trying to head off. number one, that the move by the palestinians to the u.n. could in some ways foreclose an early opportunity to return to negotiations. as your report indicated, we haven't had negotiations for quite some time, but there's a concern that this will simply drive the parties further apart as they take unilateral steps against each other. the second, more serious concern has to do with the possibilities that the palestinians will use their new u.n. status to gain standing in international legal institutions such as the international criminal court or the international court of justice and to transform what has been a diplomatic process into a legal process of holding settlement illegal, settlement... israeli soldiers and so forthcoming under the jurisdiction of the international institutions and these

daniel kurtzer joins us live from princeton, new jersey, this morning, a former ambassador to israelnk for being with us this morning. >> good morning, ali chbts a complicated issue. some people know it very well and are deeply entrenched in it one way or another, and other people tweeted and asked, what's the big deal? what's going on? palestinians asking the u.n. for statehood? the u.n. to vet overwhelmingly in favor and the u.s. to step in and veto it. set the stage. what's going on? >> sure. this is not an unavoidable problem. his is a human contrived problem. we have had efforts over the years to try to sdoesht arp israeli peace. palestinians and israelis have done pretty well in narrows differences. the united states is a third party. frustration has grown in the past two years over the inability to find a formula to get them back to negotiations and as a result of that, the palestinian authority decided it wants to take its case to the united nations in the hope that it will gain somethingally fromg of his status. the u.s. and israel believe this is a diversion and threat'ses