In bad news for the apologists for Israel who reflexively declare that because their favorite nation can do no wrong, and therefore any use of cluster munitions by the IDF in Lebanon was perfectly legitimate according to international law -- oops. It seems the IDF is now Shocked! Shocked! to discover that these weapons were in fact used against civilian areas, contrary to international law. In other words, the IDF did commit a war crime, not once, but thousands of times during the war.
UPDATE: I would like to thank the participants in these comments for making this discussion a civil and productive one, free of flames, unpleasantness, and the Ususal Suspect Trolls. While the people here tonight may have disagreed, they have been able to do so while respecting each other's opinions.
"This is a very serious matter," MK [Member of the Knesset] Cohen said. "If cluster bombs were used in populated areas, this constitutes an indescribable crime. There is no target that cannot be hit without cluster bombs. The massive use by the IDF of cluster bombs during the war suggests an absolute loss of control and hysteria."
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Now we see the unedifying spectacle of Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz throwing up his hands in shock to discover there was indeed gambling going on in Rick's Place, but it can not have been his fault, since he gave explicit orders to do no such thing! He has ordered an investigation.
However, as Meron Rapaport points out in Ha'aretz, Halutz's protestations of innocence strain credulity.
if the MAG's [Military Adjutant General] office is indeed launching such a probe, it should ask the commander in chief of the IDF how it is possible that he did not know where his officers and soldiers were dropping four million bomblets.
Why has the IDF begun admitting only now what Haaretz has already been reporting for a number of weeks?
http://www.haaretz.com/...
According to testimony of an MLRS battery commander published in Haaretz, MLRS rockets were heavily used, even though they are known to be very inaccurate - the rockets may deviate up to 1,200 meters from their target - and a substantial percentage of the bomblets are known not to explode, thus becoming mines. In light of this, most experts view cluster ammunitions to be "non-discerning" weapons prohibited for use in a civilian environment.
According to the officer, in order to compensate for the rockets' lack of precision, they were told to "flood" the area with them. "We have no option of striking an isolated target, and the commanders know this very well," he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Now Defense Minister Amir Peretz is also ordering an investigation. Somebody is going to end up thrown under the bus, but so far it seems the circular firing squad is just loading up.