Compared to the value of the security technology Israel sells overseas, the value of European imports from the settlements are mere pocket money. Israel's economy won't be hurt even if European governments adopt the measures proposed by a group of nongovernmental organizations in order to shrink trade with the settlements and reduce the contradiction between European pronouncements ("the settlements are illegal" ) and imported dates from the Jordan Valley. Israeli governments will continue to compensate settlers for any "political" damage, and the Israeli people will continue to show no interest in yet another report written by the goyim.

The report, entitled "Trading away peace: How Europe helps sustain the illegal Israeli settlements," was published yesterday by 22 aid, development and human rights organizations. It explains the reciprocal connection between the strangulation of the Palestinian economy under Israeli rule and the growth and well-being of the settlements. This need not upset the European consumer. Cheap clothing and computers from China and India entail no less exploitation - yet another reason for the Jewish Israeli citizen to feel good about himself as part of the world's winning wing.

The flip side of every bunch of Jewish grapes from the Jordan Valley sold in Europe is an impoverished Palestinian family, because Israel has expropriated most of its land and also deprives it of water. That's insufficient in a world rife with injustice? The report says something else to Europeans: Never mind the exploitation, but consider the absurdity!

As consumers, we Europeans pay for the grapes, and as taxpayers, we compensate the Palestinians for the water Israel steals to irrigate those same grapes. Europe is spending billions of euros for the sake of the Palestinian state-to-be, thereby essentially absolving Israel of the consequences of its economic strangulation policy. Perhaps this absurdity is easier to understand in today's European Union, where one member state, Greece, has bowed to the pressure of its creditors and is denying public medical care to the unemployed.