We can't very well say, "Well, so what if they kept someone illegally for three weeks? The terrorists do worse!" Yes, they do do worse, but that doesn't make what Israel did in this case right, nor does it justify any of the illegal things the US has done in this "war on terror." (though how one wages war on terrorism, which is not a country, but a tactic, is beyond me) We're the US of A; we're supposed to be better than the people we're fighting. And if Israel's government wants to be able to claim the moral high ground, then they'd better be walking on it.
If we really think our system of democracy is valuable and worth exporting, then we need to prove it through our actions. Holding people illegally does not help our argument.
|