It would, of course, make many people feel better if the government was to order the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador over his country's latest resort to mass murder. For many reasons, it is the right thing to do, and there are signs that the government senses this. Brian Cowen and Micheál Martin were gratifyingly clear in the language they used in the wake of Monday's attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla, but in condemning the massacre in such strong terms, they did raise expectations that they might actually match the rhetoric with action.

The mind boggled at Cowen's threat of serious consequences for Israel if it harmed any Irish citizens. As he was clearly not talking about sending the FCA to attack Tel Aviv, we can only assume that he was hinting at strong action at diplomatic level, such as the expulsion of Ambassador Evrony or somebody else in a senior position at the embassy. Evrony's colleague Ruth Zakh is one candidate for expulsion should that day ever come, having attempted to bend the truth on The Last Word on Monday while her boss was being dressed down in Micheál Martin's office.

People on board the occupied ship had thrown hand grenades at Israeli soldiers, she claimed, in the apparent hope that her interviewer Anton Savage and his listeners occupied the same fantasy land she did. Unfortunately for her, they did not, and she backed away from her argument as soon as she detected the incredulity in Savage's voice. But it was a telling insight into the Israeli approach to controversy, nevertheless – bombard people with untruths and hope that some of them stick.

So we banish the Israeli ambassador or some lackey into the desert of diplomatic disgrace? What then? What have we achieved other than to make ourselves feel good for having done something to register our disgust at what happened? Which is not to suggest that we shouldn't do anything, or that there is nothing to be said for asserting our right to be outraged at the behaviour of rogue states: but Israel, uniquely among the world's democracies, is immune to reason, and unaffected by condemnation. One expelled ambassador would barely make it blink.

Unless that ambassador was kicked out of Washington. By any reckoning, Israel's role as self-appointed bootboy of the Middle East in recent years has been facilitated by support from the US, both moral and practical. The occupation and invasion of Gaza and the consequent war crimes, the erection of the peace wall and the consequent further annexation of Palestinian territory, not to mention the continuing programme of settlement building, could only have happened with the approval, tacit or vocal, of Washington.

This, until very recently, unflinching support is the result of the influence of the Israel lobby in the US, whose objectives were summed up best by the US commentator Tony Smith some years ago. "To be a 'friend of Israel' or 'pro-Israel'", he said, "apparently means something quite simple: that Israel alone should decide the terms of its relations with its Arab neighbours and that the US should endorse these terms, whatever they may be." Millions of dollars have been spent by the Israel lobby in recent years to ensure these objectives are met. Where the Irish lobby once used to guarantee votes in return for favours, the Israel lobby promises hard cash. Dozens of senators and members of the House of Representatives have been bought and paid for through political donations by the Israel lobby. White House staff, particularly during the regime of the second president Bush, have been rabidly pro-Israel. There is little serious criticism of Israel in the mainstream media. The result has been billions of dollars in US foreign aid every year to Israel and the vetoing by the US of more than 40 UN resolutions critical of Israel over the last 40 years.

But the times, they may be changing. Barack Obama has altered the mood music so much that he is now one of the most unpopular US presidents ever in Israel. His treatment of the fantastically obnoxious Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a few months ago, when he left him waiting in the White House while he had dinner with Michelle and the children, is a sign that he is a man of good taste personally and good judgement politically. He will move too slowly for some, but the early signs are that he recognises that blanket, unquestioning support for Israel has untold negative consequences for the US. To be a 'friend of Israel', Obama appears to have recognised, means introducing it to some hard truths.

Eurovision? talk about out of touch...

In a world where people make life forms out of chemicals, where scientists can cure breast cancer with a single jab, and where Newstalk have managed to make George Hook popular, you'd think RTÉ would have come up with a formula to make Ireland competitive in the Eurovision Song Contest. Last Saturday's fiasco, in which Niamh Kavanagh, through no fault of her own, barely registered with the voters of Europe, appears to have come as a huge shock to everybody involved in the national broadcaster, if not to anybody else. For next year, everybody who was involved in 2010 should step aside to be replaced by people familiar with the changing face of popular culture. Then they should use my formula for success, which I pass on for free today as part of my patriotic duty: Good-looking Singer + Catchy Song = Fighting Chance.

ddoyle@tribune.ie