The story proves only that there are some people in the U.S. government who hate Israel so much that they would reveal classified information to give it a black eye. However, the Times' torture story is far more troubling. When there is a ticking bomb, a situation with which Israel is all too familiar, the gloves and everything else have to come off. In order to uncover the identity of terrorists, the location of their supplies, safe houses and useful sympathizers, I don't doubt that Israeli security officers have resorted to unpleasant, even awful methods of interrogation. To take the absolutist position, which says that use of physical pressure on terror suspects under any circumstance is wrong, is morally irresponsible.
Individuals can play at pacifism.
Thus, I find much of the international criticism leveled at Israel by the U.N. panel studying this issue in Switzerland entirely hypocritical. In this case, Israel is not being judged by a double standard, but rather by a triple standard. The triple standard is the decision to compare Israel's situation with fellow democracies which are at peace. The actions of Britain in its fight against Irish terrorists or the French against OAS terrorists in the 1960s and various separatists since then, or Spain against the Basques, is far worse than anything Israel is charged with. Even the most hard-bitten of Hamas Islamic fundamentalists have the right to appeal to Israel's courts, and many have found the Jewish state's impartial judicial system a useful ally.