"If you want to understand what's going on, and if you would like to get to know some of the reasons for your losing the war against us," he said, "then read the book of Michael Scheuer."
Michael Scheuer uttered the quote you cited without context to describe the entrenched wrongheadedness of American policy concerning Israel, Islam, the war on terror, and what it would take to change the Washington mindset.
I invite you to read an illuminating article in the New Statesman here:
http://www.newstatesman.com/north-america/2011/09/bin-laden-cia-scheuer-qaeda
The article contains the following illuminating quotes which provide the background for the quotation you have given and which has much to say about our relationship with Israel and what happens to those impertinent enough to question it. Some excerpts appear immediately below:
Scheuer often singles out Israel for criticism, arguing that the US's "unquestioning support" for the Jewish state's dispossession of the Palestinians has helped radicalise young men across the Muslim world, boost al-Qaeda's status and endanger US national security. He has received hate mail and death threats in response, and says: "The anger within the Jewish community in the US towards me is quite extraordinary." He argues that he was sacked from a post at the Jamestown Foundation in 2009 for his anti-Israeli remarks.
…
Scheuer has admirers on the left and the right. The former quote his views on the link between US foreign policy and the al-Qaeda threat; the latter point to his support for near-indiscriminate military action against terrorist groups, the use of "extraordinary rendition" and CIA special prisons, and his relaxed attitude towards "collateral damage". "Killing in large numbers is not enough to defeat our Muslim foes," Scheuer insists in Imperial Hubris. "With killing must come a [General] Sherman-like razing of infrastructure."
His argument seems to be that Washington has two options: either it changes its "failed policies" in the Muslim world or it embarks on a mass killing spree against suspected terrorists. He remains unapologetic about this. "America today is one big Israel," he says. "All it has to defend itself is the intelligence services and the military, because our politicians will not address the issues that are at play."
I ask again what do we get out of our relationship with Israel? A man who should know, a man whom Osama bin Laden confirms understands him and why he is making war on us, says Israel is a major contributing factor. The enemy says that our relationship makes United States a target. By extension, it makes us a target for a nuclear strike. Against that, what do we get from our relationship with Israel?
Your answer is conclusionary, to withdraw from Israel as to commit some sort of slow suicide, but it appears without any support in fact, logic, or even support by appeal to authority.
Our special relationship with Great Britain can be debated on its own terms. Our relationship with Israel should be evaluated on its own terms. If we are making a mistake with Great Britain it hardly justifies making a second mistake with Israel. If we are not making a mistake with Great Britain, it does not mean that we are not making a mistake with Israel. I ask again, what do we get out of our relationship with Israel?
What we get out of our relationship with Israel should be evaluated on its own terms and those terms should be the security of the United States, not the career advancement of the politicians importuned by the Israeli lobby.
So it comes down to this:
On one hand we have our professional spy catcher telling us that our relationship with Israel-among other reasons, especially our support of Saudi Arabia- is provoking an enemy to make terrorist attacks on the homeland. The enemy himself confirmed this. The enemy still exists and could potentially acquire an atomic bomb, smuggle it into America and detonate it in one or more American cities.
On the other hand we have vague generalities about "democracy" and "slow suicide" and quotations without context.
