The Palestinian president is reaching out to Israelis ahead of a trip to the U.N. where he will seek an upgraded observer status for his territory.

Mahmoud Abbas vowed to prevent another violent Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, like that of last decade.

"We don't want to use terror...we want to use diplomacy, we want to use politics, we want to use negotiations, we want to use peaceful resistance," Abbas told Israel's Channel 2 TV Thursday.

Abbas hopes to obtain "nonmember state" status at a U.N. General Assembly vote later this month.

Palestinians believe the vote will force Israel to withdraw from current positions to lines it held before the 1967 war or face international legal action. Israel says negotiations alone will fix borders between it and any future Palestine.