Abraham Lincoln's advice to an aspiring lawyer more than 150 years ago serves as a timely principle for anyone who looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and asks how and when peace will come.

Thursday, the U.N. General Assembly voted to grant the Palestinians the title of non-member observer state. Now that the dust has settled, Americans will ask themselves what has been achieved.

The mode adopted by the Palestinian Authority to seek a resolution at the United Nations is an absurd evasion of the necessary path of hard work, compromise and direct talks with Israel that will lay the foundations for real Palestinian statehood and true peace. President Obama's comments last year indicate that he has wisely internalized Lincoln's dictum, knowing that "peace is hard work" and "will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations."

In fact, the foundations for peace owe much to Israeli cooperative efforts, such as such as the recent approval of numerous health and education projects in Area C of the West Bank, in conjunction with USAID, and the increase in the number of work permits for Palestinians in Israel to almost 50,000. In contrast, the U.N. resolution violates the binding Israeli-Palestinian accords, including the 1995 interim agreement, which commit both parties to resolve all the core outstanding issues, including Jerusalem, refugees, borders, economic and security arrangements, only in direct negotiations.

When judged against the criteria for statehood as defined by the Montevideo Convention and the U.N. Charter, namely, "peace-loving;" possessing a permanent population, a defined territory, effective government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states, we have to ask what kind of state was voted for. A Palestinian entity without territorial integrity? A Palestinian leadership whose president, Mahmoud Abbas, has continued to rule beyond his elected term for three years? A state that should now be responsible for Hamas in the Gaza Strip, that rules 40 percent of the Palestinian population and has fired more than 1,500 rockets into Israeli cities last month?

Abbas' U.N. gambit, as illogical as it is illegal, will fail to move the parties closer to peace and undermines the cooperation that does exist. It adds another dismaying episode to the litany of rejectionism that has defined the Palestinian response to Israel's pursuit of peace and the far-reaching offers made by Israel's leaders in 2000, and again in 2008. By his own admission, Abbas' turn to the United Nations was intended not to end the conflict, but to internationalize it.

Instead of indulging in the deluded hand-clapping that greeted his U.N. initiative in New York, President Abbas would do well to extend his own hand for peace in Jerusalem. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat famously stood in the parliament in Cairo 35 years ago and said he would go "to the ends of the Earth" to make peace with Israel. Far from emulating Sadat's leadership, President Abbas chose self-deception over the self-determination of the Palestinian people. He needed only to take a 10-minute drive from Ramallah to Jerusalem if he wanted to secure a legacy as a hero for peace and the best interests of his people.