Not all the news is bad. Or at least not all people are gutless cowards who are unwilling to stand up for what is right.

I was reminded of this as I saw this video coming out of Tokyo, Japan, where pretty few residents have any direct connection to Israel.

TOKYO: People sing in Hebrew 'Oseh Shalom' in solidarity with Israel and prayers for peace. 🇯🇵🇮🇱

The song means: "May the one who creates peace on high bring peace to us and to all Israel. And we say: Amen." pic.twitter.com/g5oG6Cr38W

— Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) October 12, 2023

I have been wading through all too many stories of people either siding with Hamas on American campuses or making moral equivalence arguments in order to excuse Hamas or at least defend the Gaza regime against the well-deserved retaliation and destruction they deserve.

I had just finished reading a depressing column in The Telegraph that described the gutlessness of so many British institutions (not the government, thank God) who are unwilling to stand up against terrorism out of fear of being victimized themselves. The BBC refuses to call out Hamas as terrorists, and the Football Association has decided not to grant Israel the same sign of support they have given other victims of violence, such as Ukraine.

They claim they don’t want to “take sides” in the conflict as if there are two sides with equally good claims of justice. Usually, the association lights the Wembley Arch in the colors of the nation that suffers an outrage, as they have for Ukraine and France. They are considering…turning off the lights. They are said to fear retaliation for expressing support for Israel.

Cowards.

Still, others have stood up, and not because they feel the impact themselves, have friends in the region, or are sucking up to somebody.

They are simply recognizing the human tragedy.

Japanese people gathering to sing in Hebrew is not something I ever expected to see, but it warms my heart. It is a reminder, as well, that historical enmities from not so long ago–the end of World War II was almost simultaneous with Israel’s creation, off by a few years–need not be a barrier to friendly relations. Japan and the United States fought viciously until 1945. We became friends not long after that, and are close allies today, with genuinely warm relations.

That is how it could be in the Middle East, but the Palestinians don’t want even a wary peace. They want Jews dead, and too many cowards around the world sympathize with that sentiment.

For Jews, it has ever been thus. My grandmother–an irreverent Jew–taught at a Yeshiva in New York City, and many of her students were children of Holocaust survivors, and then grandchildren. Before the Holocaust, there were pogroms and centuries of hatred and distrust.

Still, Jews have persisted and contributed mightily to Western civilization. Jews make up about 0.2% of the world’s population and have won 22% of all Nobel Prizes. Statistically speaking, the population of the Jews is hardly a rounding error in the population of the world, but you would never know it given how large their history has loomed in our consciousness. They are God’s chosen people, after all.

A Jewish friend of mine once joked that it was time for God to choose another group to single out; Jews needed a break from all the love.

Clearly, he had a point. It has never been easy being a Jew.

Obviously, I am philosemitic, not because of my Jewish ancestry on my father’s side, but because I admire the accomplishments of so many Jews and associate them with the cultural heritage. I don’t know if I would have approved of the Zionists when they emigrated to the Holy Land–that was before my time and culminated after the horrors of the Holocaust. But I do know that the die have been cast, Israel exists, and peace is possible if and when everybody recognizes that fact and moves on to making peace.

The Palestinian leadership doesn’t yet want that peace and is expressing that feeling by being savages. Savages must be fought and if necessary be destroyed.

The civilized world should follow the lead of these Japanese citizens and stand behind the victims in this conflict, and in this case those victims are Israelis.