Last July we reported how General James Mattis, the retired commander of the US Central Command, admitted that the United States’s ill-conceived alliance with Israel is costing American lives.

Now another American has come to the same conclusion – and plucked up the courage to say so publicly.

Writing in the news website Mondoweiss, Philip Weiss draws attention to this amazing testimony at the US Congress by former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer, who told his audience just what they didn’t want to hear: that the reason that Muslims want to become jihadis is not because who Americans are but because of the US’s foreign policy.

Watch him in action here:

Speaking at a hearing before the Homeland Security Committee, which focused on Somalia and the problem of Westerners joining the so-called “jihad” and returning home, Scheuer said that it’s high time Americans started debating whether supporting Israel is essential to US security, or having troops in Muslim countries is essential, or supporting Saudi Arabia is essential. If the people want to believe that, “fine”, he said, as long as they understand that “costs come with that”.

In response to Israel flag-waving by Republican congressman Peter King, Scheuer says: “If it was up to me, I’d dump the Israelis tomorrow. All I worry about is that continuing preaching of American politicians to the American people that our relationship with the Israelis doesn’t cause us to have dead Americans and extraordinary expenses in fighting the Muslim world.”

Hats off to Michael Scheuer for joining the slowly growing list of truth tellers.