Prominent among those voices are the French, whose officials, including President Nicolas Sarkozy, have privately said that the Oslo peace process, begun in the Norwegian capital in 1993 and the framework for Israeli-Palestinian interactions since, has run its course. It is time, they say, for state-to-state negotiations between Israel and a prospective Palestine.

French diplomats are trying to help the Palestinians shape a United Nations resolution that describes statehood on the 1967 lines, along with agreed land swaps with Israel, but slows down bilateral recognition between a Palestinian state and other nations. This is partly aimed at luring the Germans, who are unenthusiastic. Europeans say they believe that their unity in this issue is important.

Israel is horrified. To abandon Oslo, its leaders say, is to destroy any hope of negotiations, because that will rip up the legal basis for talks. If a United Nations resolution defines Palestine as within the 1967 lines, that means 500,000 Israelis will be defined as occupiers in another country. To pre-empt that, there are suggestions here to annex certain areas first or withdraw travel privileges for Palestinian officials in the West Bank.

“If the Palestinians go to the United Nations, it will begin a long funeral for the peace process and negotiations,” Yuli Edelstein, Israel’s minister for public diplomacy, told a group of visitors in Tel Aviv on Thursday night.

There are two routes that Mr. Abbas is considering at the United Nations. His preference is to begin by applying through the 15-member Security Council for full membership. The United States has vowed to use its veto there.

If that failed, he could then go directly to the 193-member General Assembly, where there is no veto and a pro-Palestinian majority. The General Assembly cannot grant United Nations membership to Palestine, however. It can only declare it to be an observer state. But the key word is “state,” because that would allow it to join a host of international agencies and treaty groups, including the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, Unesco and others.

“The title ‘state’ will open so many doors to us,” said Ammar Hijazi, a Palestinian official who has done much of the background work on the United Nations application.