As Joe Biden pointedly refused to meet with Israel’s Security Chief, Moshe Ya’alon, the Netanyahu government is now terrified of losing essential European trade and American military support as the international community condemns the massacre of civilians in Gaza during Israel’s attack in July. Any sanctions imposed by the EU would dramatically affect Israel’s economy which is dependent on the European single market for its survival.

There are now recriminations in an Israel that has, for decades, been used to punching way above its weight, secure in the knowledge that the power of its lobbyists in both the EU and the U.S. would protect against its military excesses in the Middle East.

Now, however, there has been a palpable paradigm shift as the world re-evaluates its opinion of an expansionist regime that continues to treat the international community, upon which it is dependent, with such obvious contempt.

Neither Washington nor Brussels are happy that the Israeli state, after decades of receiving economic and military support, has now become such an intractable obstacle to peace and a threat to global security. Which is why the EU is now considering trade sanctions that many feel are much overdue.