Why did it take so long for Jews to finally decide, in the late 19th century — almost 2,000 years after they had been expelled from Judea — that it was time to return to the Holy Land? Was it because life in Europe, in spite of its anti-Semitism, was a darn sight better than living with sand fleas, scorpions and, God forbid, Arabs?

Whether Jews like to admit it or not, their long stay in Europe had turned them into Europeans — their presence in the Middle East makes about has much sense as polar bears in the desert. Hence, the long list of excuses for why Israel should exist.

EU policy makers insist that the role played by the use of farmlands to grow biofuels in the trade bloc is minor. They say that only 2 percent of cereals grown in Europe go to biofuels, whereas in the United States about one third of the corn crop is used for fuels, making the situation there more acute.

But Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University professor and special adviser to the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, insisted Monday that biofuel production in Europe was among the factors pushing food prices up. Sachs acknowledged that the effect on prices from U.S. production was greater because subsidy programs there were bigger. Even so, he said, Europe is diverting growing volumes of wheat and rapeseed to fuels, and its targets needed to be reviewed immediately.

“None make sense,” Sachs said, referring to European and American subsidy programs encouraging the use of biofuels. “I would urge a reconsideration of both under the new market conditions,” he added during a press conference at the European Parliament.