The online foreign affairs magazine cited exclusive WikiLeaks cables detailing moves by the US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice to prevent a more thorough UN investigation of alleged abuses during the conflict.

Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the three-week-long Israeli offensive in December 2008 and January 2009, which was aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks.

According to one cable, Rice spoke with UN chief Ban Ki-moon three times on May 4, 2009 to urge him to remove recommendations for a wider investigation from a board of inquiry report into attacks on UN sites in Gaza.

Rice “underscored the importance of having a strong cover letter that made clear that no further action was needed and would close out this issue,” the US diplomatic cable said.

Ban said his staff was working with the Israeli delegation and “called her after the letter had been finalized to report that he believed they had arrived at a satisfactory cover letter.”

Later that year Israel and the United States pushed back against a similar effort to investigate the war by the UN Human Rights Council, which appointed a team led by the South African jurist Richard Goldstone.

In a separate development, the Palestinians say that if a peace treaty with Israel isn’t reached by September their first choice is to go to the UN Security Council with such strong support and arguments that it would recommend admission of Palestine as a new member of the United Nations.

That would require convincing the US, Israel’s ally, not to veto a resolution supporting membership for an independent Palestinian state, which won’t be easy.

But Riyad Mansour, the top Palestinian diplomat at the UN, said that there are other options to achieve the goal through the UN.

He said September looms large for the Palestinians because “there are so many things that will converge.”

“Our preference for what should happen in September is to have a peace treaty with the Israelis to end the occupation to allow for our independence and our membership in the United Nations,” Mansour said.

Mansour expressed regret that the US blocked a Quartet meeting tentatively scheduled for last Friday in Berlin to discuss, and hopefully endorse, the outlines of a peace settlement proposed by Britain, France and Germany. A US official said a Quartet meeting wouldn’t produce anything that would help restart direct talks.

Mansour said that if there is no peace treaty by September, “for whatever reasons, then we are not going to be hostage to the position of Israel, nor will we accept that nothing can be done until the Israelis are ready and willing.”

Mansour said Palestine has been recognized as an independent state by 112 countries. Possible recognition by six others is being examined, he said, and “hopefully by September 2011 we will have 130, maybe 140 countries recognizing the state of Palestine.” That is important because UN membership not only requires a recommendation from the Security Council but approval by two-thirds of the General Assembly, or 128 countries.

“This is the end game,” Mansour said — the more countries the Palestinians have on their side, the more they can pursue independence, “whether in the Security Council or in the General Assembly or combined.” If a US veto looks certain in the Security Council, there’s the option of going before the General Assembly, where there is no veto but resolutions are nonbinding.