Palestine's bid for acquiring statehood through the UN Security Council will fail, the government of Israel is convinced.

Speaking on Israeli military radio Tuesday, Israel's cabinet secretary Tzvi Hauser said the Palestinians would fail to obtain the nine yes votes they need at the UN Security Council to keep alive their hopes of becoming a United Nations member state on the lines that existed before the 1967 Six Day War.

"A state can only be created by the Security Council, not the General Assembly, and the Palestinians do not have a majority at the Security Council, so there will not be a Palestinian state," said Hauser, who is a confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hauser has downplayed the fact that the Palestinian Authority is likely to gain an UN observer status after a vote at the UN General Assembly.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, acting in his capacity as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, is expected to formally submit the membership bid to the UN on September 23, when he will also address the General Assembly.

"The Palestinians will change their attitude when they realize that their unilateral initiative is going nowhere and will lead them directly to stalemate," Hauser said. "In New York we will see who is the one who refuses to extend their hand for peace and who will do it."

The Palestinians have said they believe they can win the nine yes votes needed for their membership bid to pass the Security Council, but the United States is expected to veto the request, effectively sinking it.

If Washington does veto the bid, the Palestinians are expected to turn to the General Assembly, where they believe they will easily secure the votes needed to upgrade their representation to a non-state observer level. Hauser said such an upgrade would "have no significance."

He said Israel continued to call on the Palestinians to drop the UN bid and resume negotiations, saying Israel was ready to hold talks "without preconditions, unlike the Palestinians."

On Monday, Netanyahu said he wanted to meet with Abbas in New York "to open direct negotiations... which would continue in Jerusalem and Ramallah."

"I propose that president Abbas begin peace negotiations instead of wasting time on futile unilateral measures," he said in a statement.

Talks between the two sides have been on hold for nearly a year, grinding to a halt shortly after they began over the issue of Israeli settlement construction.

Israel has declined to renew a 10-month partial settlement freeze that expired shortly after peace talks began last year, and the Palestinians say they will not hold talks while Israel builds on land they want for their future state.

Israel's prime minister also predicted on Sunday that the Palestinians' quest for UN membership would fail because it bypasses negotiations with the Jewish state, and said he was working close with Washington to ensure the statehood bid withers in the Security Council.

Benjamin Netanyahu put the blame for stalled negotiations squarely on the Palestinians, who are skeptical of his commitment to peacemaking and have refused to return to the bargaining table without an Israeli freeze on settlement construction.

"The truth is, Israel wants peace, and the truth is, the Palestinians are doing all they can to torpedo direct peace talks," Netanyahu told his weekly Cabinet meeting.

"They must understand that despite the current attempt to bypass negotiations again by going to the UN, that peace is achieved only through direct negotiations," Netanyahu added. "Their attempt to be accepted as a full member of the U.N. will fail."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said over the weekend that he would submit his bid for full membership to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon in New York on Friday, during the annual General Assembly session in New York.

Netanyahu said there was "close cooperation" with the US to make sure the Palestinians' bid is shot down in the U.N. Security Council, the powerful body that must approve a membership bid. The US has threatened to veto the move if it wins backing from nine of the Council's 15 members — something Washington is trying to prevent.

That would leave the Palestinians with the option of seeking a lesser status of nonmember observer state at the General Assembly, a forum where they would expect to win the necessary simple majority of those present and voting.

Although that would be a largely symbolic victory, the Palestinians hope to use their elevated status on the international stage to press Israel for concessions in any future negotiations.

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