Israel has asked the Bush administration to speed delivery of short-range antipersonnel rockets armed with cluster munitions, which it could use to strike Hezbollah missile sites in Lebanon, according to two American officials.
The request for M-26 artillery rockets, which are fired in barrages and carry hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that scatter and explode over a broad area, is likely to be approved shortly, along with other arms, a senior official said Thursday.

But some State Department officials have sought to delay the approval because of concerns over the likelihood of civilian casualties, and the diplomatic repercussions.

The rockets, while they would be very effective against hidden missile launchers, officials say, are fired by the dozen and could be expected to cause civilian casualties if used against targets in populated areas.

Israel is asking for the rockets now because it has been unable to suppress Hezbollah's Katyusha rocket attacks in the month-old conflict by using other types of artillery and bombs dropped from aircraft, the officials said.

More
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/11/news/cluster.php

Washington (ANTARA News) - The US government is considering an Israeli request for M-26 artillery rockets with cluster munitions it wants to use against Hezbollah missile sites in Lebanon, The New York Times said Friday.

The request was likely to be approved shortly, but other officials said the State Department is delaying approval amid concerns the munitions might cause civilian casualties and complicate diplomatic efforts to end the war, a senior US official said as reported by AFP.

The senior official said there was discussion to block the sale because
during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon civilians were killed with the weapon, but added that the rockets would likely be delivered and that Israel would be told to "be careful."

Month-long battles between Israel and Hezbolla militias have left more than 1,000 civilians dead in Lebanon and 38 in Israel, while diplomats at the United Nations have been wrangling over the wording of a proposed resolution urging an end to hostilities.

Described as short-range antipersonnel rockets, the M-26 are fired in
barrages and carry hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that scatter and explode over a broad area.

More
http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=18131

Tel Aviv, 11 August - Unable to crush Hezbollah's military capacity despite its month-long bombing and shelling of Lebanon from aircraft and warships, the Israeli government has asked the US administration to speed up delivery of short-range antipersonnel rockets armed with cluster bombs, the so-called M-26 artillery rockets. These rockets, which are fired by the dozens, carry over 600 hundred small bombs that explode like a hail of grenades over a broad area and therefore were ordered by Israel from the USA to thwart off an eventual invasion by conventionally armed foreign ground forces.

As of today, US State Department officials are said to be concerned about the possible diplomatic repercussions, as these cluster-bomb carrying rockets, if fired into densely populated Lebanese areas, will wage havoc on the Lebanese population on a still much broader scale, as the month-long bombing has already achieved. The delivery of the M-26 bombs would amount to a green light by the US administration to openly extend Israeli warfare on the civilian population in Lebanon and possibly in the Occupied Territories. According to leading US news outlets, State Department officials admitted it was likely that Israel will get the rockets, but will be told to be “careful.”

http://www.arabmonitor.info/news/dettaglio.php?idnews=15327&lang=en

Israel will feel the wrath.

666 UNCLE SATAN (GEROGE WARMONGER BUSH) : "Sorry to Oil the Next Shipment of WMD's to IDF IAF SS Nazis / Likud Brownshirts / Irgun Zvai Leumi Judeonazis and the Annexation of Lebanon to IsraOil but Oil comes First. FILL HER UP ????????"

Speaking of zionists, Nazis, and shirts, I spotted something truly eye-popping the last time I read some Leni Brenner (this chapter: http://www.marxists.de/middleast/ironwall/08-fascter.htm ):

"In November 1934, Mussolini set up a Betar* squadron at his scuola marittima at Civitavecchia [*Betar was/is the zio-fascist youth organization founded by Jabotinsky in 1923, the same year Hitler started the 'Hitler Youth']. There, 134 cadets were trained by the notorious Black-shirts and, in 1936, Il Duce himself reviewed his Zionist wards. [32] Setting up the school in Italy could only confirm the world’s image of Revisionism as Fascist but the imperious Jabotinsky scarcely cared. He wrote to one of his Italian followers, who was handling the negotiations with the regime, that they could have set up the school elsewhere but “we ... prefer to have it established in Italy”. [33] By April 1935, Jabotinsky had become little more than a defence attorney for Mussolini and, while in America on tour, he wrote an article, “Jews and Fascism – some Remarks – and a Warning” for an English-language Zionist paper, the Jewish Daily Bulletin:

"Whatever any few think of Fascism’s other points,
there is no doubt that the Italian brand of Fascist
ideology is, at least an ideology of racial equality. Let
us not be so humble as to pretend that this does not
matter – that racial equality is too insignificant an idea
to out-balance the absence of civic freedom. For it is
not true. I am a journalist who would choke without
freedom of the press, but I affirm it is simply
blasphemous to say that in the scale of civic rights,
even the freedom of the press comes before the
equality of all men. Equality comes first, always first,
super first; and Jews should remember it, and to hold
that a regime maintaining that principle in a world
turned cannibal does, partly, but considerably atone
for its other shortcomings; it may be criticized, it
should not be kicked at. There are enough other terms
for cussing use – Nazism, Hitlerism, Polizeistaat,
etc. – but the word “fascismo” is Italy’s copyright and
should therefore be reserved only for the correct kind
of discussion, not for exercises in Billingsgate.
Especially as it may yet prove very harmful. That
government of the copyright is a very powerful factor,
whose sympathy may yet ward off many a blow, for
instance in the League of Nations councils.
Incidentally, the Permanent Mandate Commission
which supervises Palestinian affairs has an Italian
chairman. In short – thought I don’t expect street-
urchins (irrespective of age) to follow advice of
caution – responsible leaders ought to take note. [34]

Pertinent notes:

32. Mussolini, My Husband (Italian film documentary).

33. Jabotinsky, letter to Leone Carpi, 7 October 1931, Scritti in Memoria di Leone Carpi, (D. Carpi, A. Milano, A. Rofe, eds), p.42.

34. Jabotinsky, Jews and Fascism – some remarks – and a Warning, Jewish Daily Bulletin, 11 April 1935, p.3.