"Clearly. But the story was about the U.S. Why the long rant about Israel?"
Because they're using Israel's copy book: targeted assassinations, safety and defense of the homeland before everything, torture, destruction of crops, livelihood.
I remember after 9/11 the reaction of a zionist engineer I knew was: "You see, the Israelis were right, targeted assassinations is the only way to go."
Joanna