On October 11, 2001, American flags burned in the streets of Rome out of hate, as they did in other European capitals. It was business as usual for the extreme left, after the short-lived rhetorical break in the days immediately following September 11. But on the same day, thousands of Old Glories, along with the Italian and Israeli flags, were instead flying proudly, this time out of love and solidarity, in the central, neo-classical Roman Piazza del Popolo. My daily newspaper, Il Foglio, had called for this show of support, and it was a rousing success with the full support of the Center-Right coalition that had just come to power.

The left was taken by surprise when their iconic political lodestar, President Clinton, stated clearly for CNN cameras, during a visit to Rome, that the flying of western flags to protest Islamist terror instead of burning them was an act of liberty and political responsibility. We, the anti-anti-Americans, were for the occasion fully in harmony with the Italian, pro-American mainstream. And a decisive battle was won.

By April 15, 2002, dozens of Israeli civilians had been massacred by individuals the liberal press was pleased to call “Palestinian militants,” i.e. suicide assassins part of the most recent homicidal intifada invoked by Yasser Arafat and Hamas. Il Foglio called for a demonstration to support Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself, and consequently thousands marched from the Capitolium to the Synagogue, and symbolically placed a small stone in front of the Temple. It was “Israel Day.” It was not a simple matter to organize, as the press overflowed with images of the armed repression brought by Tsahal in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Yet this unprecedented show of love and solidarity for Israel was equally successful, and this time a part of the liberal left gave its sponsorship to the demonstration, side by side with a large number of public intellectuals and politicians who openly displayed their support for the Jewish State.

Last Thursday evening, November 3, 2005, thousands of citizens convened in front of the Iranian Embassy in Rome, holding lighted candles and waving Israeli, Iranian, American, and Italian flags as they firmly protested against the pasdaran head of the Iranian State, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had just threatened the right of Israel to exist by publicly stating that the whole country should be “wiped off the map.” Il Foglio had again called for a protest demonstration. This time, with the exception of the Reformed Communist Party of Italy and a small group of opinion leaders, almost everyone across the political, cultural, and religious spectrum supported the initiative.

There were many people from the democratic opposition to the Mullah Islamic Republic. The speakers at the demonstration were an Egyptian journalist for the leading Italian daily, Il Corriere della Sera, a man who lives under state protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because of his opposition to terrorism; a Catholic activist; and the Chief Rabbi of the Roman Jewish community, Riccardo Di Segni. Several cabinet members attended, holding lighted candles along with the leaders of both the political coalitions. The Italian Foreign Minister, Gianfranco Fini, just back from a diplomatic mission to the West Bank and Jerusalem, denounced the Iranian threats in no uncertain terms and in contrast to the traditional, pro-Iranian policies of the commerce minded Italian Foreign Ministry and the European Union. At the last minute, he decided not to attend in person, expressing his regret publicly, and attributing his absence to “diplomatic reasons,” presumably meaning pressure exerted by Tehran that came very close to unadulterated blackmail.

In the Iranian capital, regime-sponsored mobilizations of extremist students were staged in front of the Italian Embassy, following the traditional pantomime of hatred against the former United States Embassy, now a museum, which included the standard burning of flags and other symbols of Western and Zionist “enemies.”

Are there some lessons to be drawn from these events? I think so. First of all, newspapers can be useful. Their primary duty is to print the news, news analysis, and commentary. But since we live “on the lid of a volcano,” as Winston Churchill wrote in a telegram to the British ambassador in Greece in April 1944, the press might also take into consideration, from time to time, the possibility of working effectively to unite people around great public values of enormous political and ethical weight. We are an expression of the body politic, and as such we have the right, if not the duty, to raise our voices when everyone else is silent. In any case, Il Foglio was born 10 years ago also as a political and cultural club, and we try to be loyal to this very European tradition. But at the same time we follow the American school of the culture wars, and we spare no energy when real rights, ideas we cherish and values we believe in are at stake.

The second lesson is that, while in Europe this kind of initiative has a remarkable public echo, this cannot be said of America. In Italy, serious reporting about non-conventional mobilizations has come to be seen as a new and positive way of committing to significant movements, as the support displayed on the front pages of the Liberal and the Conservative press and TV news programs shows. The American public reads or hears almost nothing about it, even when the issue is solidarity with the American and Jewish peoples, and fundamental geopolitical issues. Is there something wrong with the times? Or just with the New York Times?

Mr. Ferrara is the founder and editor in chief of Il Foglio.