The lesson that the European Union will have to learn from its experiment with the single currency is that we cannot do without De Gaulle's "Europe des patries". The musketeers' motto — "All for one and one for all" — only works as long as the team is composed of autonomous individuals, united by mutual respect, a common purpose and enlightened self-interest. Without all that, loyalty expires.

Far away from the unedifying spectacle of European states falling out over money, off the coast of Somalia they have worked in perfect harmony. An EU naval task force under a British admiral has attacked pirate bases, setting a precedent for dealing with a menace to trade on the high seas. In close proximity to this display of European solidarity, however, lies a far greater threat to peace: the imminent prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb. Israel cannot and will not tolerate this. Just as they did before the Six Day War in 1967, Israel's main parties have formed a grand coalition, clearing the decks for a pre-emptive strike against Iran, probably before the US election in November. 

War between Israel and Iran could be a decisive test for the West. Even under Obama, there is no doubt about the allegiance of the United States, but Europe's is much less certain. Yet if the EU is now ready to project naval power to keep sea lanes open in the Indian Ocean, why should it not do the same in the Gulf, to which Iran has threatened to cut off access in the event of war? If Israel were to come under retaliatory attack from Iran and its Islamist allies, would the EU offer military or political assistance, as the US surely would? Or would Europeans abandon the Jewish people once again?