Osama bin-Laden’s writings explain that the 9/11 Al Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers was a response to US imperialism in the Middle East; particularly the presence of American troops on Saudi Arabian soil. That was a defilement of the holy land, in his eyes.
Bin-Laden justified the mass-murder attack in the heart of New York City because, in his mind, all Americans were equally guilty for the crimes of U.S.
forces around the world.
Bin-Laden saw American civilians in the same way that many 19th century military commanders viewed Native Americans. They were all equally guilty of resisting white settlement. Therefore, all of them, including women, children and the elderly, were legitimate targets for white retribution.
Israel thinks the same way about Palestinians. As a nation, Israel stands in the same moral league as Osama bin-Laden and Col. John Chivington (the man responsible for the Sand Creek massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians in 1864).
Once again, Israel is bombing the people of Gaza after several Israeli’s were tragically killed when their home was struck by a rocket fired from within Gaza.
Personally, I wish everyone would stop dropping bombs and firing rockets.
Both sides are behaving like Osama bin-Laden. But there is no question that Israel remains the aggressor, the instigator of this entire horrible tragedy. How long will this Zionist state keep the people of Gaza locked up inside their open-air prison, with minimal food supplies and no –that’s right, NO – sources for clean drinking water anywhere?
Israel has always used this strategy of collective punishment.
I have seen it with my own eyes.
We were living with friends in the West Bank during the run up to Israel’s last assault on Gaza in 2014, Operation “Protective Edge.”
Three Israeli settlers from one of the many illegal settlements popping up
around the West Bank like mushrooms on steroids were kidnapped and later found dead. (I may write about the supposed search and rescue efforts – called Operation Brother’s Keeper – which swirled around us that summer in a future post.)
Israel had identified two suspects, though they never released any evidence to verify their definitive claims. Israeli officials said the two men were members of Hamas (the party that now governs Gaza), even though Hamas representatives not only vehemently denied the connection, but insisted that Hamas had nothing to do with the kidnappings.
The Hamas argument was entirely believable, given that Hamas was in 
delicate negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (the group that governs the West Bank) to form a unity government. Jeopardizing those negotiations with such a senseless stunt, knowing that it would bring down the wrath of Israel, made no sense at all. (By the way, Israel’s government at that time hated the idea of a unified Palestinian government.)
We had become friends with an independent photojournalist that summer. One evening she learned that the Israeli military was entering Hebron on a search and destroy mission. They intended to arrest their two suspects or at least let the Palestinian community know the consequences of not handing them over.
Our journalist friend intended to document the mayhem, and I was going along to take photos of my own. Late into the night we searched for
transportation to Hebron, but every effort failed. Reports were circulating about gangs of Jewish settlers roaming the streets, together with the soldiers, attacking Palestinian cars and pedestrians. No one was willing to drive us.
In the morning, we caught the first public bus to Hebron. My friend had heard that Israel soldiers had bombed two Palestinian homes. Since the soldiers were unable to find the two suspects, they located two family homes of the suspects’ relatives and destroyed them completely.
Eventually, we found both homes. The shell-shocked families led us through the ruins. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was left intact. You can see it all for yourself in the accompanying photos.
Anything that was breakable was broken. Everything shreddable had been 
shredded. All foodstuffs were torn from their bags or containers and strewn everywhere.
Both families were made to sit at a table and watch as the soldiers ridiculed them, hitting, kicking and slapping them, insisting that they tell them the whereabouts of their accused cousins.
Finally, once every nook and cranny of the homes were made unlivable, the soldiers walked upstairs to detonate a bomb in the family room.
Both explosions sent concrete walls flying through the air, opening large, gaping wounds blackened by flames. Fires raged throughout the remains as 
both families were forced to watch their belongings go up in smoke. Once the soldiers left, they were free to put out the fires as best they could.
As I walked through the ruins, taking in the heartlessness and injustice of it all, I thought of General Sherman’s strategy of eliminating the American Indian. His subordinates received explicit commands to kill, burn and destroy everything and everyone they met. Attacking an Indian village meant that nothing was left standing.
Collective punishment has always been at the heart of Israel’s Palestinian policy.
Imagine that you are awakened late one night by soldiers kicking down your front door. Your children are pulled out of their beds and everyone is made to sit at the kitchen table.
Then the soldiers inform you that your second cousin (on your mother’s side) is suspected of a serious crime. If you don’t tell the police where to find him, they will destroy you home.
Think about that.
Your cousin is suspected of a crime. He has not been arrested or charged, much less tried or convicted. No evidence of your cousin’s involvement has been presented anywhere. Not in court; not on a charge sheet; and certainly
not in the media.
The government can simply make a naked, unsubstantiated accusation. And on the basis of that accusation, your home will be demolished. Why? Because you are related to the accused.
Yep. That, my friends, is what passes as “justice” for Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.
Similar situations occur over and over again, month after month in the Occupied Territories.
And people wonder why rockets fly out of Gaza…
