Both Israeli and Palestinian leaderships are opposed to policy moves by US President Barack Obama on a two-state solution. Obama is apparently going to make an announcement on US Middle East policy after the Nov. 8 elections, Al-Monitor has learned from a senior American diplomat in Tel Aviv.

Currently, Obama is fully engaged in the election campaign on the side of Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton. He will do very little on the Middle East front, so as not to damage her chances among American Jewry. Suspicious that Obama will make a policy move on the region, 88 senators have signed a letter to the president asking him to veto any UN Security Council resolution that is not balanced. That letter was advanced by the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC with some help by Democrat activists and by the pro-Israel pro-peace J Street lobbying organization. A senior official at J Street told Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity that the organization conditioned its support of the letter on the wording “an unbalanced resolution.” Hence, the door is left open for a balanced US-sponsored Security Council resolution in the future.

Obama’s considerations in making a November declaration are based on his wishes to leave a Middle East policy legacy to his successor, thus avoiding a policy vacuum until the next administration takes over. Such a declaration will also set the record straight in relation to his own Middle East policy efforts.

According to the US diplomat in Tel Aviv, the White House and the State Department are weighing which policy measure to take, out of three possibilities.