Public relations met realpolitik in the waters off the Gaza Strip Monday morning. It's not yet clear which side won.
"Spin" artists on both sides were hard at work even before the facts were all in about the convoy of activists heading for Gaza in defiance of an Israeli embargo that has, by all accounts, caused great hardship for the people of that isolated enclave.
We do know that Israeli commando troops, some with paintball guns, boarded some of the vessels from dinghies and helicopters. We know there were at least nine deaths. We know the vessels were all taken to Ashdod, an Israeli port.
We know that Israel's enemies immediately went into oratorical overdrive. We know Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a trip to Washington - much to the relief of the Obama administration, no doubt - and headed straight home, instead, from his visit to Canada.
We know, too, that the organizers of the flotilla were not primarily concerned with getting "humanitarian supplies" to the people of Gaza. We know this because if that had been their goal, they would have accepted the repeated Israeli offer to land the cargo at Ashdod, and the Israeli guarantee to deliver the aid supplies from there to Gaza.
We know also that the Palestinian leadership is not at all dismayed by this turn of events. We know that because Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, told supporters on the weekend that "if the ships reach Gaza, it's a victory for Gaza. If they are intercepted and terrorized by the Zionists, it will be a victory for Gaza, too."
And we know that the flotilla organizers, a combination of humanitarian and pro-Palestinian activists called Free Gaza, has in the past managed to get small vessels full of civilian goods into Gaza, while Israeli authorities looked the other way. We know that because Free Gaza proclaims it. We do not know the organization's motives in changing tactics now.
We know, too, that Israel's enemies have seized many past opportunities to smuggle arms into Gaza and the West Bank.
Further, we know that any use of force by Israel, in support of a blockade widely labelled as illegal, is a public relations setback for Israel. We know that Israeli policy is based on intractable realities - that's what makes it realpolitik - and even on existential anxiety. Southern Lebanon bristles with weapons aimed at Israel. Hamas is dedicated to destroying the Jewish state. Syria is another implacable neighbour. Obviously Israel cannot trust the pacifism of activists.
Anything Israel did in these circumstances would have been a defeat: either permitting the opening of a smuggling route for future delivery of even deadly cargo, or accepting the public relations disaster we have seen. Israel has not survived for more than six decades, amid implacable hatred, by putting public relations ahead of practical considerations.