The campus protestors are being arrested and worse for espousing positions in which a majority of Americans now believe. From Mike Whitney at unz.com:
There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all. MARIO SAVIO – “Operation of the Machine”, YouTube
No one in the anti-genocide movement is calling for a general strike, a worker’s revolt or disruptive acts of civil disobedience. What they’re asking for is a ceasefire and divestment in any company that is profiting from Israel’s war in Gaza. These are reasonable requests and entirely appropriate. The problem is that the students making these demands have set up encampments on campuses across the United States which is the first step towards a more far-reaching mobilization against US-Israeli policy in Gaza. That is why the government—acting in concert with its law enforcement assets in the states—has taken such a draconian and brutal approach to the mostly-peaceful demonstrations. They see the protests as the tip of the spear, the beginning of a populist movement that holds the moral high-ground and will eventually force politicians to oppose the present policy.
