There is no Israeli-Palestinian peace process at present and talk of a “two-state” solution, while originally based on a sound foundation, now only masks the way the Israel-Palestine conflict has metastasised. In such a setting, diplomacy can steer matters away from further deterioration less by prescribing a final settlement and more by insisting on specific principles: international law; national rights; and restoring Palestinian institutional development. such an approach will not solve the conflict, but it will leave a future generation with a more effective set of tools.

Nathan J. Brown is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University and nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; for the 2023-24 academic year, he is a fellow at the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study.