Regarding your essay—which I think would be more effective broken up into smaller sections—I agree that our alliance with Israel is more one-sided in terms of benefit to the US than most admit. Still, I don't think it's correct to characterize the WTC attacks as having been motivated by US policy in the ME wrt Israel or the Palestinians. Yes, they were referenced in al Qaeda statements, but then aren't they always? The presence of US troops on sacred Saudi soil appears to have been bin Laden's principal gripe. After all, 19 out of 20 hijackers were Saudi nationals. When is the last time you heard of a Saudi blowing themselves up on behalf of Palestine?