Silmarillion - Chapter 03 - Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor

[Aiwendil]

Raynor wrote:

I think it was quite funny, in a way, to see Aule defending the elves, almost all by himself. All the others against him;

I wouldn't say that 'all the others are against him'. On the contrary, it seems to me that most of the Valar are, at this point, on Aule's side - after all, they do go to war for the sake of the Elves and they do summon the Elves to Valinor.

Anguirel wrote:

Is this truly a Summons, or only an Invitation? Or does it harden from the latter to the former?

It seems to me to be the latter. As you point out, the Valar don't seem to object to Lenwe's turning aside - nor to the refusal of the summons by the Avari. I think that, even if summoning the Elves was the 'wrong' decision, the Valar are actually rather wise here - if they were to force the Elves to come to Aman, they would surely lose a lot of esteem among them. Moreover, the Elves would really be 'prisoners' in a sense.