The big headline Monday: The United States and Israel announced a plan to end the war in Gaza – if Hamas accepts it.

But indulge us a moment to eavesdrop on France. The country has had four prime ministers in two years. A conversation in recent days, however, reveals a basis for stability. 

Nicolas Sarkozy became the first former president to be sentenced to prison following a corruption conviction last week. “It is not me who has been humiliated, but France,” he told Le Journal du dimanche, attempting to discredit the courts. Au contraire, said Emmanuel Macron: “The rule of law is the foundation of our democracy,” the current president posted on the social platform X on Sunday. The “law must be the same for everyone,” a constitutional scholar told Le Monde on Monday. The ruling, the newspaper wrote, is “the result of growing public demand for integrity.”