An Israeli military probe found insufficient intelligence and planning in the May 31 raid on several Turkish ships bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip in a report released July 12, but also concluded that no punishments were necessary. The Eiland Commission, which was formed last month to investigate the raid, was composed of professionals outside of the chain of command for the flotilla raid and had been assigned to study the outcomes of the incident and "establish lessons." The commission declassified some sections of its findings, which concluded that the Israeli Navy failed to sufficiently consider the possibility that its troops could encounter violent resistance.

From the Los Angeles Times, July 11:

OAKLAND, Calif. — As business owners boarded up broken windows and scrubbed graffiti here Friday, Oakland officials assessed the damage wrought by protesters after the verdict in a high-profile police shooting case and blamed outside agitators for the worst of it.

Bolivian Defense Minister Rubén Saavedra has ordered an investigation of a July 7 incident in which a T-33 military jet fired a missile from its base in El Alto that passed within a meter of the tail of the official presidential plane, a Falcón 900 EX Easy recently purchased from France. The missile hit a nearby house, causing no casualties. The government said it would pay for the damage to the house. Both planes were apparently on the ground when the incident occurred. President Morales does not appear to have been on board at the time. However, a day earlier his helicopter had to return to Chimoré air base in Cochabamba when it developed engine trouble immediately after taking off. (La Prensa, La Paz, July 8; Prensa Latina, July 7)

Mexico foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to establish a network in South America, the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah reported last week. Hezbollah operatives employed Mexicans nationals with family ties to Lebanon to set up the network, according to the account. Mexican police reportedly mounted a surveillance operation on the group's leader, Jameel Nasr, who traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive information and instructions from Hezbollah commanders there. Nasr, who was arrested this month in Tijuana, also made frequent trips to other countries in Latin America, including a two-month stay in Venezuela in the summer of 2008, Mexican police reportedly told the Kuwaiti daily.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governed Mexico for 70 years until 2000, was expected to reap gains in the July 4 gubernatorial races, with voters disillusioned by escalating narco-violence under the hardline policies of President Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party (PAN). In fact, the PRI won nine of the 12 states that elected new governors—including Zacatecas, Tlaxcala and Aguascalientes, three states where it had been out of power for 12 years. The PRI also won municipal races in the border cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez. But it lost three states where it had governed for generations—Sinaloa, Oaxaca and Puebla. In each of these three, the PRI lost to candidates fielded by an alliance of the conservative PAN and the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). (Latin America News Dispatch, July 6; WSJ, July 6)

Francisco Chávez Abarca, a Salvadoran national wanted on terrorism charges in Cuba, was arrested by Venezuelan authorities July 1 when he landed at the Caracas airport under a false passport. Under interrogation, he confessed to having been contracted by Luis Posada Carriles to carry out destabilizing acts in Venezuela in the lead-up to the September national assembly elections. After questioning by the Venezuelan police, he was extradited to Cuba.

On July 11, tens of thousands gathered to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica of nearly 8,000 captive Muslim men by Bosnian Serb rebel forces—the bloodiest episode of the wars that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia, recognized by the international community as an act of genocide. A special ceremony at Potocari cemetery outside the eastern Bosnian town included internment of the remains of 775 recently identified victims, joining the 3,749 already there. Notably, the ceremony was attended by Serbian President Boris Tadic and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as Charles English, US ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). (AFP, July 10; BNO News, July 7) In a sign of hope, Serbian citizens in Belgrade erected a makeshift memorial to the Srebrenica victims, made of old shoes stuffed with personal messages. (RFE/RL, July 10) But, despite official and spontaneous commemorations, the accused military author of the massacre remains at large, whereabouts ostensibly unknown.

A few years ago it was only voices such as Scott Ritter and the ever-dependable Counterpunch that employed right-wing nationalist rhetoric about how the United States has surrendered its sovereignty to Israel, complete with sentimental invocation of the sullying of Old Glory. Liberals at places like the New Republic warned that the radical right was reviving propaganda about a "Zionist Occupation Government" (ZOG). But now it is Dana Milbank in the Washington Post July 7, commenting on Obama's meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, who mainstreams such odious verbiage: