Macron, tormented by politics at home, led the charge for recognition of Palestine at the United Nations last month, in a dramatic U-turn for France that pulled along many other Europeans, including Starmer. Merz, conspicuously, did not follow, instead repeating the line that once united the E3, that the preconditions for recognising Palestine were far form being met. Israel was infuriated by French, British and others’ recognition of Palestinian statehood as the conflict raged, sowing even more mistrust at the peace conference table with the suspicion that pro-Palestine gesture politics was the order of the day in most European countries....