The Israeli Example

Lost in the debate over the brutal techniques used to interrogate al Qaeda suspects has been one of the U.S. legal advisers’ key justifications for the program: the “Israeli example," which, they argued, established that torture is permissible as a last resort when "necessary to prevent significant physical harm” to civilians.

On the surface, Israel might seem like a useful precedent for those arguing that so-called enhanced interrogation isn’t beyond the pale. As a democracy facing a huge volume of terrorist attacks—with a legislature and a judiciary that have publicly scrutinized the legality of “moderate physical pressure”—