Dear Shadow Minister,

You trot this baseless tripe out every time this subject is raised and I have little inclination to go through it yet again.

However it remains an indictment on how much yet again your ideology trumps any sense of truth or justice you might have.

The continued building of illegal settlements in occupied territories against international law and the Geneva convention by a government which obviously has no intention of allowing a viable Palestinian state lay bare any notion that the Palestinians are anything but the victims here. For you to be unwilling or unable to recognise this is frankly contemptible.

What a champion!.

Jerusalem, that is Western Jerusalem, has always been the capital of Israel.

That said, the government of Israel has imposed the occupied Eastern part of Jerusalem over the citizens of Israel and over the residents of Jerusalem in particular, as it forced by law the "unification" of Jerusalem under one council.

This was not just a hot-air political statement, but has many practical ramifications: more public and private institutions in Jerusalem migrate to the eastern side, more main roads are built that pass through the eastern side and anti-discrimination law prevents companies from providing services only in the western side. This makes the life of Jerusalemites, Israelis, visitors and diplomats who conscientiously do not wish to partake of the occupation, very difficult if not impossible.

In addition, segments of the main roads to Jerusalem pass through the West Bank, including both freeways and 6 kilometres of the new (which will become the only) train line to Jerusalem, which is expected to open next March. True, there are ways to bypass those roads, but they are longer, winding, slower, have no public transportation and are impassable during heavier snow (when the trains continue to go and every effort is made to keep the freeways open).

While moving embassies to Western Jerusalem is in principle a good idea, in practice it must be weighed against the above transportation issues.

About time! How long are we going to support and encourage civil war in Israel? The two state solution isn't working and won't start to work because we wait long enough. One of the two states (Israel) actually gives a damn about their citizens. The other state (Palistine) uses it's citizens as an army of terrorists or as poverty stricken meat shields. The leaders of Palistine are unable and unwilling to lead their people out of poverty and into peace. It's time to support Israel, and only Israel, so that the country has authority within it's land and not a continual civil war.

Among other reasons step up to an actual solution and support it, instead of blundering around and hoping murderers will change their ways.

Not_Now.Soon

well said

Israel has defined the northern and southern borders. "From the river of Egypt in the south to the great river Euphrates in the north would include all of modern day Lebanon and three-fourths of modern day Syria." And half Iraq where IS rebels were defying Jerusalem's police. Trump may get the crowds he's entitled to when he walks to his new embassy in Great Israel and does an Abraham of Lincoln speech.