Obama administration officials expressed dismay on Wednesday reflecting on a series of "unhelpful actions taken on both sides" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with both Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the phone on Wednesday in a tense effort to maintain peace talks between the two parties.
"There is a chance to move this process forward. There is still a chance for this," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters. "We can't make the hard choices for them."
Harf said the US would not "play the blame game" and discuss who began a downward spiral over the course of 24 hours, during which Israel has refused to release a last batch of Palestinian prisoners-- a condition of the original deal to begin talks nine months ago-- and the decision of the Palestinian leadership to initiate membership in a host of bodies at the United Nations.
At dueling press conferences, Harf and Palestinian envoy to the United Nations Riyad Mansour relayed opposite messages: at the very same moment, Harf said that the parties had made "a lot of progress," as Mansour said that Israel had blatantly "violated" the terms of the original agreement.
US lawmakers expressed displeasure at the Palestinian actions.
"It was extremely disappointing to me that (President Mahmoud Abbas) chose to take this action at the UN It is counterproductive and doesn't move them closer to any final resolution," New York Representative Nita Lowey, the top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, said at a House hearing on Wednesday.
Testifying before the committee, US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said that the United States would oppose the Palestinian applications.
But Power said it was too soon to determine what response would be appropriate. "We will need to see what it is they have submitted," she said.
Representative Kay Granger, who chairs the subcommittee, said the Obama administration must make its opposition clear.
"The administration must send a clear message to the Palestinians that the only path to statehood is through a negotiated agreement with Israel, not through unilateral attempts at the UN," Granger said at the hearing.