I will read the rest of your response closely but I just want to address the absolutism in your statement "self-immolation is always the act of a fanatical extremist or someone pushed beyond their mental capacity to deal with external issues"

In a normal society I would agree. But kamikaze pilots 'self-immolating' in what they were indoctrinated into believing was a divine sacrifice during WW2 were not all fanatical extremists who were crazy. They were socialized into acting as what military personnel in the West pejoratively described as 'idiot bombs'. Islamic extremists using suicide bombings as a political instrument is also easy to write off as 'barbaric', 'insane', and demean for its brutality and ultimate ineffectiveness especially relative to advanced weaponry and military capabilities. Ultimately, a man driving a van on the west side highway that kills 8 innocent people in Manhattan is seen as a psychopath and criminal (as they should be), while an American airman who personally contributes directly to a campaign of bombings that lead to the killing of (let's say proportionally) 8 innocent people of the tens of thousands of Gazans is just collecting a paycheck. The lengths you have to go to sanction the latter and say that same person has no right to make a political statement protesting his and his country's participation and indifference to death, that happens to end in his own death, seems really callous, or at least not even-handed.

It seems instead of seeing the political act for what it is and interpreting your reaction to it based on your personal biases, you are going to great lengths to categorize the act in a way that fits into a legalistic, rational mode of thinking. Maybe if you talked about your anger instead it would present a more direct path into the real feelings Bushnell's suicide give rise to.

So far I see your enumerated points at the end are pretty problematic, and I think most of them show a reactionary tendency. I mean the gall to write:
"1. As a practical matter, suicide as a form of protest is so pointless and meaningless."
Don't know what to say to this level of certainty and truthyness

"ABSOLUTELY NO PALESTINIAN asked that young man to do this."
Talk about missing the point

"3. I am also unmoved by his statement as to why he did it."
Yes, you are actively disgusted by it I think. You are moved, just not sympathetically

Point 4, yes your family is not the only one who benefited from military service economically and socially. Again, that is beside the point of the resulting act of protest.