Faced with what the Wall Street Journal calls "one of Israel's worst international relations disasters in years", the right-wing leadership of the so-called "Israel Lobby" has been pulling out all the stops to defend the Jewish state against global outrage over its deadly seizure of a Gaza-bound vessel in international waters carrying humanitarian supplies early on Monday morning.
Its biggest concern for now is to prevent the administration of US President Barack Obama from distancing itself in any way - let alone joining in the almost universal condemnation - from the military operation in which at least nine civilian passengers of the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara were killed by Israeli commandos.
While neo-conservatives were warning darkly about the geopolitical consequences for the administration of any distancing from Israel's position, the Lobby's leaders and their friends in US Congress focused more on defending Israel's version of the pre-dawn incident that took place on Monday some 100 kilometers off Gaza's coast.
Based primarily on a short video distributed by the Israel Defense Forces, this version of events, including the weapons involved on both sides, has been called into question by the testimony of many of the 600 some passengers. After being towed to Israel and held incommunicado for some 24 hours, they were deported on Wednesday.
