May 11, 2012 | 1:24 am

May 11, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

The King is Dead; Long Live the King

Shimon Stein of the Institute for National Security Studies examines how the election ‎of a socialist president will impact on France’s relations with Israel. ‎

An examination of the president-elect’s statements and platform show that any ‎change expected in foreign relations will be in style more than in content. Regarding ‎Iran, for‏ ‏example, Hollande has made it clear that alongside negotiations with the ‎international‏ ‏community Iran must be made to understand, via sanctions, that ‎France is opposed to Iran‏ ‏attaining nuclear weapons. Hollande expressed opposition ‎to a military operation. In terms‏ ‏of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Hollande (who is ‎considered pro-Israel) expressed‏ ‏support for Israel’s security and the two-state ‎solution.‎

For universal draft lawmakers, a conundrum of Talmudic proportions

The Kadima-Likud coalition agreement includes the draft of ultra-Orthodox men for ‎military or national service, but the community is not sure that such a move can be ‎implemented, writes Mitch in the Times of Israel.‎

‎[W]hat [Yossi Elitov, the editor of the ultra-Orthodox world’s largest weekly, ‎Mishpacha] believes may happen is mutual recognition. The secular camp will allow ‎charitable community service to be considered a national service, and the ultra-‎Orthodox camp will openly hail those who serve in the army, “saluting every Hebrew ‎mother who sends her son to service.” This is very different to the Plesner report, ‎which seeks ultra-Orthodox service primarily in strained national security forces like ‎the police, the fire departments and Magen David Adom, along with a commitment ‎for soldier-like reserve duty deep into middle age.‎

‎1967 All Over Again?‎

Writing in Tablet Magazine, Benny Morris ‎compares the unity government to the one ‎formed in the run-up to the Six-Day War. ‎

Mofaz will join Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a three-man ‎kitchen Cabinet or the fuller eight-man “Inner Cabinet,” where the call of ‎whether or not to launch a military strike against Iran will be decided. Both ‎Netanyahu and Barak are on record as pessimists when it comes to the possibility ‎that sanctions or diplomacy will stop Tehran’s march toward nuclear weapons. ‎Both have made it clear that Israel will have to rely on its armed forces to resolve ‎the problem, whether or not Washington gives Jerusalem a green light.‎

Learning from Bin Laden’s ‎Strategy
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The al-Qaeda leader had a clearly defined set of objectives, a model the US would do ‎well to emulate in its war on terror, writes Jonathan E. Hillman in the National ‎Interest. ‎

Bin Laden went further than ranking worthy objectives; he explicitly ‎acknowledged what was not achievable. Recognizing that al-Qaeda was ‎not prepared to govern effectively if given the opportunity in Yemen, he ‎wrote: “Our goal is not to expend our energy in Yemen, to use the greater ‎part of our strength in supplies and reserves, and to wear down and ‎ultimately topple an apostate regime, only to establish another apostate ‎regime.” That seems like a fitting description of the U.S. effort in ‎Afghanistan, where pervasive corruption remains an “acute challenge,” ‎according to a recent Pentagon report.‎

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