Long before the start of the Gaza war in 2023, there was a growing consensus among global policymakers, political activists, and the broader foreign policy community that Israel-Palestine was stuck in a political and diplomatic vortex. It was becoming clear that the Oslo process – and the very idea of a two-state solution negotiated under the skewed and coercive power dynamics of permanent military occupation – was no longer a relevant framework for resolving the situation in Israel-Palestine, and that a growing chorus of experts no longer believed it to be viable. As of 2025, it is undeniable that even the broadest interpretation of the Oslo process offers no viable path forward that can be translated into policy.
Instead of pushing for progress to remedy the conflict, prior to the Gaza war, the international community appeared relatively resigned to the quasi stability of a brutish, perpetual, but manageable Israeli military occupation, relentlessly expanding settlements in the West Bank; unlawful annexations on top of those in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights; intermittent wars and episodes of armed conflict marked by indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on civilians; and a near-total siege of Gaza. Within the international legal and human rights communities, a growing consensus had also emerged that Israel was committing the crimes of apartheid and persecution against the Palestinians it rules over, and that the occupation, because of its permanent nature, marked by violations of occupation laws and deliberate denial of Palestinian rights to self-determination, was itself illegal. The International Court of Justice affirmed that consensus in its July 19, 2024, advisory opinion, determining that Israel’s occupation is illegal and must end. …..more
