It's been almost a month since Donald Trump envisaged the forced displacement of the Gaza Strip's population and their expulsion to neighboring Arab countries. Since then, the American president has hammered home his determination to take control of the Palestinian enclave and transform it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."

This prospect has raised an outcry around the world, if only because it violates the very foundations of international law. To date, however, there has been no reaction from the two highest leaders of the European Union (EU): Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission president, and Antonio Costa, the president of the Council. Such silence bodes ill for the very future of European integration.

These European leaders have resigned themselves to the fact that the EU no longer has any control over crisis management in the Middle East, and will simply finance the reconstruction of the ruins created by this laissez-faire attitude when the time comes. They are also convinced that they have to spare the White House on the Middle East at all costs, in order to preserve what they can of American support for Ukraine.

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