"The Israeli public has been convinced over the years that it can exist here in the region while deeply disdaining all its neighbours and rampaging in a thuggish and murderous manner against everyone - whenever and however it wants - relying solely on brute force. “That’s why there was something so substantial about the sight of the bombed-out buildings in Ramat Gan,” he said. "They are so similar to the images we’re used to seeing from Gaza. Those sooty grey skeletons of buildings, that billowing cloud of dust, that carpet of ash and rubble covering the street, those images of children’s dolls in the hands of rescue teams. “The scale is, of course, completely different, but these images are nevertheless a momentary rupture of this disturbed fantasy that we are immune to everything,” he added.

United States citizens should take note. We never seem to appreciate the consequences of our actions, at home or abroad, until they return to us. The people in the global South, the East, Middle -East–people around the world-- are humans like us, with struggles, sorrows, dreams and aspirations. We need to shake the boot off our necks, then lift it off our neighbors ’ necks.