During the recent years, the idea of deploying an international force in the region has been raised from time to time by various people and groups, among them the Palestinians, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the G-8 and senior media figures. The aim of these ideas was to monitor a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Two cases of deployment of international forces in the region have proven successful. One was the UN Disengagement Observers Force (UNDOF), deployed along the border between Syria and Israel following the Disengagement of Forces agreement of 1974. The other was the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) who were deployed as part of the peace agreement with Egypt. The success of these forces stemmed from the fact that both cases involve safeguarding and overseeing agreements signed by two states with regular armies. Both sides had an interest to maintain the agreements between them. In both cases, buffer zones were established as part of the agreements, and the sides undertook intensive steps to quell any provocations of a third party.

On the other hand, there are some other cases of deployment of international forces that have failed. Immediately prior to the Six-Day War, Egypt ordered the withdrawal of the UN Emergency Force, stationed in the Sinai since 1956. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) which was deployed in 1978, following Operation Litani (carried out by Israel against PLO targets in southern Lebanon), and without Israel's consent can be defined as a failure. It did not fulfill any significant role in the region. The Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), in place since the 1994 Hebron Agreement, has not stopped violence against Israelis in the Hebron area under its scrutiny. TIPH has been accused of a clear bias in favor of the Palestinians. The international monitoring committee, set up in Lebanon following Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" operation in 1996 was also a failure.