Paintballs to pistols,Israel admits ship blunders

JERUSALEM-Wrong intelligence, wrong guns, wrong tactics. Israel's military acknowledged big mistakes on Tuesday during the bungled boarding of a Gaza-bound aid ship in which elite troops killed nine international activists.Though Israelis rallied to their conscripts in the face of foreign fury, the domestic recrimination-with "Foul-up" and "Fiasco" dominating newspaper headlines-betrayed an erosion of confidence recalling the setbacks of the 2006 Lebanon war.One commentator demanded that Defense Minister Ehud Barak step down. Cabinet members vowed to investigate, but their insistence that the pro-Palestinian activists had provoked the bloodshed found a ready ear among an irate Israeli public....
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Picture Left:An Israeli armed naval boat, right, escorts a ship from the Gaza-bound flotilla, center, with Israeli troops on board into the port of Ashdod, Israel, Monday, May 31, 2010.(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)