A few months earlier, Ikea, Volvo and other firms from Sweden, the current holder of the EU's presidency, found themselves the target of a consumer boycott campaign in Israel because of an article in a Stockholm tabloid on the alleged theft of organs from Palestinians killed by Israeli troops. And several of the Union's foreign ministers, such as France's Bernard Kouchner and Ireland's Micheal Martin, have been denied permission to enter Gaza by the Israeli authorities.

In reality, however, the tension has been superficial. While there may have been the occasional angry word exchanged on the diplomatic front, the EU's political and economic ties with Israel have been strengthened over the past few years to such an extent that Javier Solana, who stepped down as the Union's foreign policy chief in late November, has remarked that Israel is an EU member state in all but name.