>>> Glenn's conflation of our support for Israel with this danger is simply a lie. No scholar of Al Qaeda thinks Bin Laden has ever cared about the Palestinians.

This is blantatly false. Michael Sheur, head of the CIA Bin Laden unit for 8 years, has stated very clearly that America's unconditional support for Israel is one of the chief grevances that Bin Laden has and uses to recruit followers to his cause.

Bin Laden has attempted to use Israel to recruit supporters, yes, but that's not the same as claiming Israel motivated Bin Laden and the formation of Al Qaeda in the 1990s.

Are you honestly arguing that Osama Bin Laden is motivated to attack America because of our support for Israel? This is a House of Saud issue through and through.

Most of the terrorists were Saudis enraged by American troops on holy land in Saudi Arabia (and the pro-American puppetry of the House of Saud).

Also false. It was reported that the members of the Hamburg cell in Germany had many discussions about their anger over what Israel were doing to teh Palestinians.

Evidence? Links?

I've gone through about six articles on the hijackers farewell videos and I have yet to see a mention of Israel.

In the mid 2000s, Bin Laden began to reference Israel more and more in the hopes of using it as a recruiting tool, but that's not the same as Israel being a motivation for the formation and financing of Al Qaeda itself.

Glenn rather vaguely implies our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are intertwined with our support for Israel. How? Heck if I know. He leaves the details for his underlings to figure out.

This is hardly complicated, much less a revelation. Just ask Phillip Zelikow, who was one of the senrior members of the 911 Commission.

"Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat (is) and actually has been since 1990 -- it's the threat against Israel," Zelikow told a crowd at the University of Virginia on Sep. 10, 2002, speaking on a panel of foreign policy experts assessing the impact of 9/11 and the future of the war on the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation.

Zelikow, like Osama Bin Laden, likes to use Israel to further his agenda. Israel functions usefully across the spectrum for those who desire to justify a political move. But that still doesn't change the basic facts that the war between America and Al Qaeda, and the American invasion of Iraq, were motivated by a number of factors (war profiteering, oil, Bush's ignorance, Saddam Hussein's easy villain status, Al Qaeda's hatred for the House of Saud, etc.)

But to amplify Israel as the hidden "key" that unlocks this mess is simply to play into the age-old nonsense. If Israel disappeared off the map tomorrow, America's "entanglements" as Glenn so vaguely puts it, would carry on exactly the same.

Our mistake was in electing a moron as President for eight years. It was not because we supported Israel.

Are you an American? I am just curious.

My grandfathers fought in WWII. I was born in Virginia. Does that make me American enough? Or does my Jewishness make you wonder if I have dual loyalty issues? Be honest.

I've decided it's much simpler to simply ignore your posts. Not that you'll accept this, but honestly you are doing the opposite of making headway with your arguments. In fact you are making a mockery of them.

If you can't follow the arguments, yes, perhaps it's best to ignore them. You aren't the first person to find that a better solution, and you won't be the last.