For a quarter century the bucolic Tuscan town of La Foce has been the focal point for one of Italy’s many delightful summer festivals of the arts. This week’s festival included a performance attuned to better times—the Polyphony Youth Ensemble under the direction of Saleem Ashkar. Even as the Israelis and Palestinians are at war, the young musicians performing Beethoven and Dvorak are both Israelis and Palestinians, and the goal is to help pave a way toward peace. Elsewhere Italians struggle to understand the vicious war on the not very distant opposite side of the Mediterranean, while some fear a revival of anti-Semitism.