It’s been at least four hours since reading David Cloud’s article on the front page of this morning’s The New York Times, August 25, 2006, and I am still reeling from the realization that Israel has duped us once again.

A few weeks ago, in an article titled, “ Prayer: flack jacket for the mind, wisdom for the heart,” I quoted reporter David Cloud’s assertion that Israel had requested a rush order for short range anti-personnel rockets armed with cluster munitions, which she could use to strike Hezbollah’s missile sites. Since the cease-fire, was on the horizon, I was relieved to see no more of the matter in the following issues of the paper, until today, that is.

There, on the front page, from Washington,Cloud brings us up to date in an article titled, “Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of U.S. Bombs.” He tells us that the State Department is investigating whether Israel’s use of American made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when it can employ such weapons, revealed two officials.

Cloud reports that the investigation by the department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls began this week, after receiving word that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties.

He reports that Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said, “We have heard the allegations that these munitions were used, and we are seeking more information.” He declined to comment further.

Here Cloud warns us that we may be betrayed by both Israel and our own government: “Several current and former officials said they doubted the investigation would lead to sanctions against Israel but the decision to proceed with it might be intended to help the Bush administration ease criticism from Arab governments and commentators over its support of Israel’s operations.”

No regrets mentioned over the deaths and maiming of innocent Lebanese, nor of betraying the trust of U.S. citizens, in whose name the barbaric bombs were dropped. The government senses it has something to fear from the Arab citizens, but not her own, a people of muted voice and bankrupt of courage.

In the same issue of the paper, Robert F. worth and John Kifner sent the report from Rab Al-Thalatin, Lebanon, “Lebanese and Aid Groups Find Dangers in the Rubble,” in which they tell us:

“Although nearly all of the roughly 900,000 refugees- about a quarter of the Lebanese population ... have returned, fully a third cannot move back into their family homes, aid agencies say. The homes are ruined or are too dangerous to inhabit because of unexploded cluster ordinance.”

It is difficult to imagine how Israel could have stooped any lower than it has, but, far from the glitter of Beirut, the villagers were surprised by what they saw as mean, gratuitous destruction by Israeli soldiers, still stationed nearby after the cease-fire took effect: water and electricity systems smashed, furniture and valuables shattered or burned, cars shot or destroyed.

“They took the imam’s car and returned it completely ruined,” said Muhammad Hamoud, 40, the village mayor. “They want us to be afraid.”

Worth and Kifner tell us that much of a building that used to house 18 people was torn apart. There was one room scarred by an explosion, others were filled with overturned furniture, garbage, crumpled cigarettes and slurs written over a picture of an Iraqi-born cleric who is revered by downtrodden Lebanese Shiites. He disappeared in Libya in 1978. The owner of the building, Hussein Hussein, 66, said the Israeli soldiers had thrown a television set down the well, spoiling the water.

Israel fears neither the U.S., nor, I am beginning to think, does she fear God. Ezechial’s words, centuries old, are fit for today’s The New York Times.

Ez 28:1-10

The word of the LORD came to me:
Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre:Thus says the Lord GOD:
Because you are haughty of heart, you say, “A god am! I occupy a godly throne in the heart of the sea!”
—And yet you are a man, and not a god, however you may think yourself like a god.

Oh yes, you are wiser than Daniel, there is no secret that is beyond you.
By your wisdom and your intelligenceyou have made riches for yourself;
You have put gold and silver into your treasuries.

By your great wisdom applied to your trading you have heaped up your riches;
your heart has grown haughty from your riches
—therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
Because you have thought yourself to have the mind of a god,
Therefore I will bring against you foreigners, the most barbarous of nations.
They shall draw their swords against your beauteous wisdom,
they shall run them through your splendid apparel.
They shall thrust you down to the pit,
there to die a bloodied corpse, in the heart of the sea.

Will you then say, “I am a god!” when you face your murderers?
No, you are man, not a god, handed over to those who will slay you.
You shall die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners,
for I have spoken,
says the Lord GOD.

Let us not think for a moment that our hands are clean of the blood that our bombs have shed in Lebanon. Our eyes that do not see, our ears that do not hear, our minds that do not think, and our hearts that do not feel will not absolve us from our guilt. Nor will they hold back the revenge of a people far from our shores whom we have all but destroyed.

Lord, have mercy on us
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
For we have destroyed your land,
Killed your people,
And spread fear upon your earth.
Help us, Lord, to see rightly,
To hear attentively,
To think wisely,
To act mercifully.
Set our feet upon your path
Of peace once again.

Amen.

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