The EU’s response to the crisis in Israel exposes its limits

Nothing screams “great power” like an aircraft-carrier. And so on October 10th Thierry Breton, the European commissioner hailing from France, raised the idea of the EU availing itself of such a seafaring airbase. Alas, even before the merits of a floating jet-launcher for a bloc with neither navy nor air force could be considered, the EU’s geopolitical ambitions fared as poorly as a plane lurching off the deck and into the drink. In the days around Mr Breton’s flight of fancy, a fumbled response to the terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7th left Europe looking muddled. A union that had found its foreign-policy voice over Ukraine has rediscovered its penchant for cacophony. A bout of chaotic diplomacy and internal squabbling has set back the cause of a “geopolitical EU” to match China and America.