At first glance, the report in Haaretz several days ago [Dec.  26] might have sounded threatening. The European Union has despaired of the Palestinians and Israelis (mainly the Israelis) and in 2013, according to Barak Ravid, the paper’s diplomatic correspondent, intends to “force” the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The immediate need for such a move, according to the report, stems directly from Israeli and Palestinian interests, as identified by experts in Brussels, Paris and London.

This conclusion regarding Europe’s intentions is apparently the result of an internal Israeli Foreign Ministry discussion. Before we delve into its details, a small sidebar is in order about the (alleged) intimidators: Perhaps, after imposing a diplomatic solution to a century-old conflict in the Middle East, the French and the Germans might be able to resolve their sharp differences with the Conservative government in London over the future of the European Union itself. Maybe they could finally decide whether the European Union is a state-like body with a real government, a type of confederacy, a federal entity or a kind of unified statement of intent? Perhaps they could also give the world a hint of how they will cope with tensions between the Union’s periphery and its economic capitals.

After all, these questions lie at the heart of the deepest crisis in the union’s history, a crisis that is the result of the global economic recession. The visionaries of the European Union wanted to have the best of all worlds — a monetary union without a fiscal union. One of the ensuing results is the Greek fiasco. Another is high double-digit unemployment among young people, in the southern and eastern states of the union.