One of the longest-standing arguments between Israelis and Palestinians concerns the most efficient mechanism for solving their decades-old argument. Palestinians believe that the conflict is the result of biased and conspiratorial international involvement with one of the parties to the conflict, and therefore, can only be resolved if the international community is actively engaged to fix the situation.
Palestinians note that Israel was legitimized through the combination of a United Nations resolution and their abandonment by a colonial power to a people, many of whom had suffered in Europe in World War II. Furthermore, Palestinians believe that Israel’s creation in 1948 — which resulted in the eviction of the Palestinians from their land, creating the refugee problem and the occupation of more Palestinian land in 1967 — has been rejected by the international community in numerous resolutions and treaties that Israel has ignored. Therefore, the same international community has an obligation to this part of the world.
On the other hand, Israel, which has become the dominant power in the Middle East, particularly in respect to the Palestinians under its control, rejects the internationalization of the conflict and prefers to seek bilateral agreements through which it, as the more powerful party, can dictate the details of any such agreement. Adopting the philosophy that possession is nine-tenths of the law, Israel has rejected all appeals to end its occupation and continued colonization of Palestinian lands using the combination of its military power and its alliance with the world’s superpower.
Monopolizing the process of resolving the conflict has not always worked. In the 1990s, the United States sought an international track to the conflict due to the need to build a coalition, including Arab states, against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and the absence of the Soviet Union. The Madrid peace conference and the Oslo Accords produced an interim agreement that unfortunately failed to translate into a permanent resolution to the conflict.
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