"A Staged Confrontation"

WTF UK?  You support it, but regret to abstain?

“We voted against this resolution not because we are comfortable with the status quo. We voted against it because ... peace must come from hard compromises that occur at the negotiating table,” the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, said.

  Guardian

I have to wonder...why would Palestine being granted statehood make peace negotiations with Israel any more difficult?  Could it be that Israel's occupation and constant bombardment of Palestine, if it were an actual state, elicit more pushback from the rest of the world?

Palestinian officials and other observers had thought Nigeria would back a Jordanian-tabled resolution, thereby delivering a nine-vote majority on the council which would have required a US veto to be blocked. Washington had been working strenuously to avoid having to use its veto.

[...]

One Palestinian source involved in the negotiations told the Guardian: “Even half an hour before the vote, Nigeria indicated it was committed to voting for the resolution.”

[...]

The apparent change by Nigeria, which is a rotating member of the council, came after both the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, phoned the country’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, to ask him not to support the resolution.

Goodluck Jonathan.

Before the vote, the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said the Palestinians could return to the security council, which, from Thursday, will have five new members who are viewed as more sympathetic to their cause.

Good luck, Palestine.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.