Did Israel Uses Cluster Bombs In Civilian Areas?

About 10 years ago I visited a factory in Kansas. I was making an industrial documentary about the plant that made explosives and cluster bombs for the US Army. It so happened that I was there on the same day Bob Dole visited, and I watched the seasoned politician schmooze his way through the crowds of employees eager to shake his hand. He had come to assure them that another fat government contract was in the bag and they would be in business for a long time to come.

The cluster bombs they made gave me shivers. I shot tests of the individual bomblets and saw Army film of the full device in use. These were called "smart weapons" because they have a computer to guide them toward their target, however my first thought was how dumb they were. They scatter hundreds of bright yellow bomblets that look more like cans of tuna fish than weapons. These explode using a specially shaped explosive that sends a high powered stream of vaporized copper plasma out capable of burning through inches of armor. What they didn’t say in any of their explanations was that these bomblets often do not fully deploy and explode. They can litter the battlefield like unexploded land mines, which can later go off unexpectedly and burn holes through anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby.

These are the kind of weapons we have sold to the Israelis with the caveat that they not be used against civilians. Now we are investigating just that kind of use. It seems that Israel used these weapons in civilian areas of Lebanon, which violates the Geneva Convention. What I expect will come from these investigations will be the same thing that always comes from any problem with Israel. We will sweep it under the rug and nothing will come from it.

Israel and the US are allies, and I have no problem with that. However, repeatedly ignoring violations of UN sanctions, covert spying on the US and human rights violations makes this allegiance a problem. We must treat Israel like we would any other country and not like they were a favorite child. Our favoritism sends the wrong message to the other countries in the Middle-East. Israel as well as its neighbors must be held accountable for their actions, and while we are at it, so should we.