It's symbolic that the official credential presentation ceremony of EU Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen to Israeli President Shimon Peres, which had been scheduled for Dec. 16, was delayed because of the snowstorm. The head of the EU delegation had landed in Israel in the early autumn, to a cloudy climate between Brussels and Jerusalem.
The rift between the EU and Israel over the settlement policy has further deepened on the backdrop of the sharp criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the role that the EU mission and the three European countries played in the negotiations with Iran in Geneva.