The U.S. Senate version of the Foreign Aid legislation for 2008 includes an amendment that would prevent Israel from purchasing cluster bombs with American military aid.

Israel's use of cluster bombs during last year's Second Lebanon War was highly criticized by human rights organizations. The U.S. investigated the use of its cluster bombs to find whether Israel had breached an agreement with the U.S. over when it is permitted to use such deadly ammunition.

Israel's use of American-made cluster bombs during the war left thousands of unexploded bomblets even though Israel Military Industries produces cluster bombs that leave nearly no unexploded munitions. The reason Israel uses the U.S.-made weapons is budgetary: Israel trades in American military aid to purchase cluster bombs from the U.S.; to buy IMI-made bombs, the Israel Defense Force would have to dip into its own budget.'

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'The consideration is budgetary,' a defense-related source said. However, each IMI-made cluster bomblet costs a mere $10.'

The cluster bombs constitute the No. 1 humanitarian problem facing Lebanon after the war, because many of the bomblets remain unexploded and have turned into make-shift mines, converting towns, villages and fields into undeclared minefields. Dozens of civilians, including many children, have been killed or maimed by unexploded bomblets in southern Lebanon since the cease-fire.

In the 1990s, following injuries to Israeli soldiers by unexploded clusters, a decision was made to develop better munitions at IMI. According to globalsecurity.org, the rate of duds in cluster bomblets made by IMI ranges from 0.2 percent to 1 percent. This translates into one dud out of every 500 IMI-made bomblets, compared to one out of every three in the American-made ones.

To date, IMI has manufactured some 60 million such bomblets, designated M85, and has exported them to many armies throughout the world.

Haaretz has also learned that Senator Leahy, the head of the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee, was trying to downgrade American aid to Israel by changing the language of the bill last week.

Leahy ultimately failed when other members of the committee told him the changes he introduced were unacceptable.