Evaluating the possible effects of Emmanuel Macron’s victory over Marine Le Pen in France’s recent presidential election, Oded Eran and Adi Kantor write:
Most French Jews voted for Macron . . . even if only as the lesser of two evils. Together with his recognition of the role played by the French government during World War II in causing injustice and suffering to French Jews, Macron also alleged that the Jewish community has lagged behind in assimilating into French society, and that Muslim and Jewish schools were teaching resentment of the French Republic because this is commanded in the Quran and the Torah.
French Jews will certainly be encouraged by Macron’s decisive victory, but like Macron, they cannot ignore the fact that one third of the electorate supported Le Pen [with her connections to anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers and her apparent refusal to acknowledge the Vichy regime’s collaboration with the Nazis].
Macron’s attitude toward Israel [similarly] includes both approval and criticism. On one of his visits to Israel, he referred to strengthening relations between Israel and France in entrepreneurship, innovation, and research, and called for denying support to the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement. Macron has also refrained from recognizing a Palestinian state, though he expressed opposition to Israeli settlements on the West Bank. In view of the weighty tasks facing him as a new and inexperienced president, especially in the international arena, it is doubtful whether he will devote any effort to rejuvenating his predecessor’s initiative aimed at restarting the political process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Read more on Institute for National Security Studies: http://www.inss.org.il/index.aspx?id=4538&articleid=13353