Why Israel imprisons so many Palestinians

On October 12, in the West Bank village of Wadi al-Seeq, Israeli soldiers and settlers detained three Palestinians and spent hours abusing them. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israelis stripped the detainees down to their underwear, blindfolded and photographed them, beat them with knives and an iron pipe, put out cigarettes on their bodies, and even urinated on them. One of the detainees described the experience as “Abu Ghraib with the [Israeli] army.”

The Israeli military said that it is investigating the incident, but that horrifying account did not occur in a vacuum. Since Hamas attacked Israel on October...