The Israel–Palestinian conflict was born amidst the chaos of war, colonialism, and conflict. The European tumults of the turn of the twentieth century sowed the seeds of the Israeli state that came to fruition out of the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust with the Israeli War of Independence. While this new state answered one set of needs, providing Jews of the world with a national refuge from oppression, it came through the creation of another: the dispossession of Palestinians from their homes in Palestine. Born out of the force of arms, Israel has since been forced to survive by them as well through the numerous wars and conflicts that have dragged on year after year.

It has long been recognized that peace can never come to the Middle East until the needs of both the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples are met. Proposals on how to accomplish this have surfaced from the very inception of the Israeli state, beginning before its founding and continuing through the promulgation of the Oslo Peace Accords and the Road Map. Most proposals, like those proffered by the United Nations, were developed by outsiders seeking to impose a solution upon the parties with a notable lack of effect. Yet the parties themselves have fared little better, as demonstrated in the demise of the Oslo Accords. Indeed, with the demise of Oslo and the increasing violence of the al-Aqsa Intifada, prospects for a peaceful solution for a time appeared to be waning.