Washington D.C.- Tuesday night the United Nations Security Council failed to pass a resolution on Palestinian statehood.

The resolution garnered only eight votes which is one short of the nine needed for passage. The countries that voted for the resolution, Jordan (which officially submitted the resolution), Luxemborg, Russia, China, France, Chad, Argentina and Chile. The two votes against, the United States and Australia. There were also five abstentions, the UK, Lithuania, Nigeria, South Korea and Rwanda. Had even one of those countries voted in favor of the resolution, it would have made no difference as the United States had already said it would use it’s veto power.

The timing of this vote, however, is especially curious when you consider that on January 1st, 2015, there will be five new members of the security council. All five of those countries are “pro-Palestinian”. If that is the case, why would the Palestinian Authority push for this vote now instead of waiting two days?

The answer could be that the Palestinian Authority actually wanted the vote to not reach nine votes so that the United States would not be “embarrassed” by using its veto. Ben Swann explains in the video above.