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Advocating a two-state solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict has been the default position for the international community, the Israeli mainstream and the Palestinian political establishment since the hopeful beginning of the Oslo peace process. There has long been a movement pushing for a binational state within the confines of the land demarcated as Israel and Palestine. This movement has been trumped by the Israeli desire to retain a Jewish state. The Palestinian nationalist discourse has also rejected a binational state, calling either for the ruination of Israel in its most extreme versions, or a more moderate version accepting the two-state solution. 

In recent years, since the death of Yassar Arafat and the deteriorating situation on the ground, prominent intellectuals have come to advocate binationalism. These intellectuals have included Tony Judt, who drew the ire of the Anti-Defamation League amongst others by calling for a binational solution to the conflict in the pages of the New York Review of Books. The late Edward Said as well as Noam Chomsky have been outspoken voices for binationalism. 

The discussion has been sparked in Israel by infrequent but contentious articles in mainstream newspapers advocating binationalism. Binationalism still remains antithetical to the prevailing Israeli discourse calling for a democratic, Jewish state. This desperate desire for demographic dominance has been at the heart of many of the most egregious of Israel's policies, including the partitioning of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as appropriation of land and continued settlements. It also remains at the core of the Israeli political dialogue, with the mainstream parties holding the Jewish state as sacrosanct; therefore the two-state solution remains the dominant solution.

Until very recently a two-state solution was the most prominent solution, the Palestinian people and politicians having reached the conclusion that their best chance at living in peace was to accept their own state along the 1967 borders. There has been a perceptible shift however in support for a binational state. This first registered in the September 2006 poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center. This poll found that 30.4 percent of Palestinians favored a binational solution, with a sharp split in opinion between Gaza and the West Bank. The level of support for a binational state in Gaza was 25.9 percent as compared to 33.0 percent in the West Bank. Support for a binational state fell towards a more historically consistent level of 26.5 percent overall in the JMCC's March 2007 poll. An interesting shift however was much of the support for binationalism moved directly from a binational solution to support for one Palestinian state. This would seem to indicate a hardening of more extreme opinions, however it is likely that these polls are not showing firm changes in opinion, but rather changes in the political situation. Support for a binational solution is not a position of acceptance or tolerance, but rather a a position of exhaustion and a reflection of the discrediting of every other solution. Given the current political climate, there has been very little public discussion of a binational solution by Palestinian political leaders. Some formerly prominent politicians, including ex-Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei have advocated binational solutions, but remain the significant minority in vocally supporting binationalism. 

The anniversary of the 1967 war has prompted much discussion about the future of a two-state solution, and for many the prognosis is grim. The Nation, a prominent American leftist magazine in commemorating the 40 year anniversary solicited articles from three writers of disparate backgrounds, only to have all three authors indicate that the situation on the ground has changed so radically that the peace process initiated at Oslo has been given over to opprobrium. 

The anecdotal evidence exists that Palestinians are making a substantive shift towards binational solutions. It remains to be seen whether currently active politicians will begin to make official gestures towards binationalism. There are many obstacles for politicians to publicly espouse a binational solution, but perhaps the situation has reached a critical tipping point and the tide will begin to turn.