Gentiles behaving well

Those of us on the political left who are supporters of Israel were surprised this fall by two shows of support for Israel's position from unexpected sources:

First Congressman John Conyers, who has never been known as a supporter of Israel and will be the chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives for the next two years, publically criticized Jimmy Carter's new book for its use of the term "Apartheid" to describe Israel's policies. As reported in the Forward:

“I cannot agree with the book’s title and its implications about apartheid,” the lawmaker wrote in a statement. “I recently called the former president to express my concerns about the title of the book, and to request that the title be changed.”

I hope that Conyers, the second most senior member of the US House of Representatives, continues to see the light.

Second, Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party candidate for President of France, who has also not been known as a friend to Israel, suggested that Iran not be permitted ANY nuclear program for any reason -- that the line between civilian and military nuclear programs was so small that the world can't take the risk.

http://ejpress.org/article/news/france/12098

This, of course, led to much criticism from the French Right -- even from the mainstream non-anti-Semitic part. FWIW, Iran has a right under the nuclear nonproliferation treaty to have a civilian nuclear power program. But treaties are for countries that can be trusted. At least in this instance, Royal is a leftist who gets it.