Israeli officials change tack after it becomes clear that request for statehood at UN is likely to gather significant support

After weeks of shrill warnings over Thursday's United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood, Israel has backed away from threats to cancel the Oslo peace accords and topple the Palestinian leadership.

Israeli officials are now playing down any immediate sanctions against the Palestinians after it became clear that the request for statehood is likely to gather significant support, which has strengthened since the Israeli assault on Gaza. Several European countries, including France, Switzerland and Spain, will back the Palestinian move, in part out of concern that failing to do so will weaken the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to the advantage of Hamas.

The Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, previously drew up proposals saying that if the UN vote went ahead "then Israel must exact a heavy price from Abu Mazen (Abbas), including the possibility of toppling his regime and dismantling the Palestinian Authority". Israeli officials warned that funding to the PA could be cut, peace accords cancelled in part or in whole, and unrestricted construction of Jewish settlements authorised.

But the threats have not deterred the Palestinians nor a significant number of European countries from supporting their bid for "observer state", which is on a par with the Vatican's position at the UN.

Officials in Jerusalem are now instead seeking to disparage the vote as of no great significance in itself.

"We won't cancel any of our agreements," a senior Israeli diplomatic official told reporters. "When we choose to respond, we will carefully weigh our options. We will do everything we can that's within Israeli law and within the framework of the agreements we signed with the Palestinians."

The Israeli move also came under US pressure. Haaretz reported that the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, warned the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, during talks in Jerusalem last week not to destabilise the Palestinian Authority.

Israel says the Palestinian leadership will instead be judged on how it uses the new non-member state status at the UN, particularly over asking the international criminal court (ICC) to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes.

Abbas is under considerable pressure from Israel, the US and Britain in particular to renounce the option for the Palestinian Authority to accede to the ICC.

Britain said it would abstain in the UN vote unless it received assurances that the Palestinians would not seek to extend the jurisdiction of the ICC over the occupied territories, and unless the Palestinians committed to an immediate and unconditional return to the negotiating table with Israel.

The British foreign secretary, William Hague, in a statement to the House of Commons on Thursday, said: "Up until the time of the vote itself, we will remain open to voting in favour of the resolution if we see public assurances by the Palestinians on these points. However, in the absence of these assurances, the United Kingdom would abstain on the vote."

The draft resolution released by the Palestinians on Wednesday, however, showed that no such concessions had been made.

The Palestinian observer at the UN, Riyad Mansour, told reporters that the PA would neither immediately sign up for the ICC nor renounce its right to do so.

"I don't believe that we are going to be rushing the second day to join everything related to the United Nations, including the ICC," he said.

But Mansour said that if Israel continued to violate international law, in particular by continuing Jewish settlement construction in the occupied territories, then the Palestinians would have to consider "what should we do next to bring Israel into compliance?"

"We're not in the business of trying to prolong this conflict and settle scores," he said. "But we are not fools nor dummies. If they don't move in that direction ... then all of us should be considering all other possible options in order to bring them into compliance."

The Israeli move to downplay the vote appears to be an attempt to diminish embarrassment at the failure of its efforts to persuade most European countries to abstain in the hopes of denying the Palestinians the legitimacy garnered from the support of democratic countries.

The motion is virtually assured of passing because a majority of countries in the general assembly have indicated they will back the statehood measure.

A veteran Palestinian peace negotiator, Hanan Ashrawi, called intense pressure from the US and other countries to get Abbas to drop the UN vote "pathetic" and said it harmed Washington's standing in the Arab world.