For the most part, Israel enjoys broad support in the US Congress. But on Tuesday 54 members of the House of Representatives signed a letter to President Barack Obama requesting that he increase pressure on Israel to lift the blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Written by representatives Jim McDermott of Washington and Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the letter accused Israel of imposing collective punishment on the residents of Gaza for the relatively minor crimes of Hamas.

The letter ignored the fact that the residents of Gaza, together with the Palestinian in Judea and Samaria, swept Hamas to power in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election.

Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, had earlier lashed out at his fellow representative for voting against the UN's Goldstone Report, which accused Israel of committing war crimes during last year's military response to ongoing Hamas rocket fire.

Ellison insisted that the Goldstone Report "only presents facts."