Ed: 42: March/2017

According to a recent report in the British Telegraph, Israel withdrew its ambassador from Cairo quietly some time ago due to security concerns. Over the many years of exchanging diplomatic missions, while Egyptian diplomatic missions have always enjoyed their stays in Tel Aviv, security concerns have regularly curtailed the Israeli diplomatic missions' movement in Cairo.

In a recent letter to the New York Times, the current Earl of Balfour, Roderick Balfour, argued that it is Israel's fault that there is "growing anti-Semitism around the world." Balfour, who is a descendant of Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary who wrote the Balfour Declaration a hundred years ago, wrote the following: "the increasing inability of Israel to address [the condition of Palestinians], coupled with the expansion into Arab territory of the Jewish settlements, are major factors in growing anti-Semitism around the world."

The phrase "two-state solution" is repeated daily by international leaders and organisations. It has become the catch-phrase for anyone advocating resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

However, the phrase is repeated without a full awareness of its history or of the practical aspects of its implementation in the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

On Feb. 17, Hamas elected Yahya Sinwar, a former Israeli prisoner who was released in the Gilad Shalit deal, as its new leader in Gaza.

While largely unknown to the outside world due to his preference to shun the media, Sinwar, a senior member of Hamas' military wing, is considered one of the most powerful men in Gaza, serving as the link between the organisation's political and military wings.

Those who expected Donald Trump to effect genuine change in Washington still might be waiting for him to take action on some issues, but when it comes to altering existing Middle East policy, the President has not disappointed. With his refusal to specifically endorse a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the President has seemingly discarded the idea that has been the bedrock principle of US Middle East diplomacy for the past generation.

To the President of the United States, attached please find a short four-step how-to guide for moving the American Embassy in Israel from its present location in Tel Aviv, Israel's cultural and economic capital, to Jerusalem, Israel's political capital.