ISRAEL AND TORTURE

I noted before that Israel prohibits torture even though it is much more threatened by terrorists than the U.S. is. I didn't know that members of the criminal Bush regime also knew about Israel's position until I read this post by David Corn. Philip Zelikow and John Bellinger wrote two memos arguing that we should NOT torture captured terrorists and in the second one, they noted Israel's stance:

In considering them we recalled how the Supreme Court of Israel (unanimously) wrestled with such questions, dealing in 1999 with the legality of certain interrogation practices used by the Shin Bet

"Deciding these applications weighed heavy on this Court. True, from the legal perspective, the read before us is smooth. We are, however, part of Israeli society. Its problems are known to us and we live its history. We are not isolated in an ivory tower. We live the life of this country." But they agreed with an earlier Commission that had "rejected an approach suggesting that the actions of security services in the context of fighting terrorism, shall take place in the recesses of the law."

Instead that Commission, and the Israeli Supreme Court chose what it called "the way of Truth and the Rule of Law." The Court observed, "Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand."