U.S. Nervous Over Israeli Use of Weapons

[davidbikman]

Israel's decision to use highly lethal "cluster" munitions (big bombs which spray tiny bombs over wide areas) against Lebanese civilians has made some American officials nervous. The State Department has delayed a previously scheduled shipment of cluster bombs to Israel and opened a formal investigation into whether Israel was cluster-bombing "strictly military" targets in its most recent war with Lebanon. Such bombing violates longstanding secret agreements between Israel and the United States that Israel not use cluster bombs and other high-tech weaponry against civilians. The first such agreement with Israel was signed in 1976. The first Israeli violation of the pact that the public is aware of occured in 1982, and prompted President Reagan to halt sales of cluster bombs to Israel for six years.

A few questions were left unanswered by David Cloud's piece in the Times about the most recent investigation into Israel's war ethics. Namely,

1. Does the United States sell these types of cluster munitions to countries other than Israel?
2. If so, does the United States require these countries to sign similar agreements that they will not use them against civilians?
3. If not, what is it about Israel that prompted U.S. officials to require such an agreement?

The New York Times broke this story yesterday, but left untouched the larger question of why the United States has, for the past several decades, harbored special worries about Israel's committment to following the normal rules of war.

Glenn Kessler's story in the Post was the only one to remind readers that not only has the United States used cluster bombs against civilians many times in Iraq, but that the State Department regularly investigates allegations that Israel "misuses" weapons supplied by the United States, including "whether Israel misused U.S.-made Apache helicopters in its assassinations of Palestinian leaders" during the regime of Bush I. "ower-level officials had determined that Israel had violated its agreements with the United States, but, the officials said, the finding was quashed at a more senior level."

* * Additional Analysis of this Issue at Times/WaPo Watch

[Tom Joad]

1. Thanks for the post. and welcome to DU!

[Webster Green]

2. Time to lock up all these war criminals...

Stop the killing!

Welcome to DU!:hi:

[mike_c]

3. continued military support for Israel, now that Israel has made it clear

...that it will use that support to commit war crimes, itself constitutes war crimes on the part of the U.S.-- a country that has been no stranger to war crimes in recent years. Still, with the "agreements" prohibiting Israeli use of these terrible munitions against non-combatants broken for all the world to see, U.S. complicity in future crimes cannot be covered by good faith treaty agreements.

[Marrak]

4. "Made in the U.S.A."

Cluster bombs "Made in the U.S.A." just add to the cluster-fuck we've blazenly, and blindly marched into, both in Iraq and Israel. We are in the credibility hole now, and require a new policy direction away from the brink. When I think about this summer's war and the herky-jerky ADD man's Whitehouse presser Monday...well, we have to start in November, and not after these criminals escape in Jan. 2009.
:patriot:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. excellent post (for a newbie)

or a DU vet, even.

to DU!

[rodeodance]

6. "its a fine time to leave me Lucille, with crops in the field...."

[Solo_in_MD]

7. If the IDF was shooting them at Hezbollah there its a legitimate use

Also submunitions are the preferred weapon to take out things like artillery and rocket launchers. I know that pointing that out inflames people here, but those are legitimate reasons to use cluster munitions.

There is no evidence so far that the IDF launched them custer munitions at civilians, which is the basic test. Apparently some were target in civilian areas, but if the IDF was shooting at Hezbollah launchers, its legitimate.

The US is somewhat sensitive to the residual submunitions issue, and does discourage their use to some extent. Also be aware that Israel makes some of their own for the same reason they make their own tanks, missiles, and bombs. I am not sure there has been an adequate analysis of their failure rate vice the US made submunitions.