By Mohamed Herzallah Although most territorial disputes leave the centre stage of international politics after a few months or years, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict refuses to go away after nearly six decades. Fundamentally, the power imbalance between Palestinians and Israel has made it unthinkable for successive Israeli governments to forfeit any of the gains made during the wars of 1948 and 1967. America's steady support for Israel, Europe's decline and Arab weakness are all factors that coagulated this inequitable distribution of power. This condition, however, has not led to a comparable distribution of political assets. Indeed, the Palestinians have benefited considerably from a sympathetic, albeit weak, international legal framework through which they secured broad political recognition of the validity of their cause. The situation is not unlike that of a tub being filled with water, in which Israel controls the water tap and the Palestinians control the plug. The result is a demoralising -- and deadly -- equilibrium in which Israel has immense power but the Palestinians avoid complete submergence. As long as the international political framework fails to tip the balance in either direction, the status quo is sure to endure. In short, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a product of a semi-anarchic world in which the rule of law is fragile and yet remains the basis of the much sought-after ideal international order. The prospects of a peaceful and just resolution will continue to grow in tandem with the strengthening of international legal norms and institutions. With the continued advance of international law, the hope is that Israel will gradually shed its predatory impulses while the Palestinians concede some of their more controversial rights in a manner that squares closely with the consensus of the international community. Although the outcome is far from certain, the fact that we are approaching a critical threshold is not. This week's Soapbox speaker is a Palestinian graduate student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and former research fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
