The hard-left NGO Breaking the Silence was behind a leak Wednesday of the annual report put together by heads of EU missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah that blasted Israel for its Jerusalem and settlement policies, and which said "settlement construction remains the biggest single threat to the two state solution."
Israeli officials said the report was written without any consultation with Israeli officials. The report was discussed at the EU's ambassadorial level Political and Security Committee in Brussels last week.
It was then delegated to a bureaucratic working study group of mid-level diplomats, and will not be brought to the meeting of the next meeting of EU foreign ministers in March.
As is the case each year, one diplomatic official said, the damning report generates headlines, but does not have much of an impact on overall EU policy. Nevertheless, he added, even if the findings and recommendations don't become official policy, that they are leaked to the press ensures they will be "picked up by the chattering classes, and become accepted as conventional wisdom."