For weeks, I have been receiving email notifications of multiple protests organized in many Canadian cities. Then, the Police began posting information about inconvenient closures of certain intersections due to large demonstrations. Media provided pictures of some violence and vandalism, of clashes with riot police, and many arrests. I remember thinking, “How is it possible that these protests are being simultaneously organized in tens of large and medium size cities in Ontario and other provinces – and nobody in my community had heard about them before they actually happened?” It did not look like a spontaneous grassroots activity.

As time passed by, Palestinians have demonstrated that they were able to defend themselves in Gaza in spite of major losses and extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure. The conflict was internationalized, Hezbollah, some Iraqi resistance groups and Yemeni Houthis became actively involved. Major political and military provocations took place in order to pull Iran into a “hot conflict”. Fortunately, Iranian leaders were smart and did not swollow the hook. As soon as Israeli forces and American “developers” gained access to a narrow section of Gaza’s shoreline, the construction of a major port began, with the focus on stealing Palestinian offshore energy resources – [ 1 ] , [ 2 ] , [ 3 ] , [ 4 ] .

Simultaneously, major media outlets, (including Fox News in the US), began raising alarms about “violent” protests at American and Canadian universities. Pictures and videos were circulated showing camps of identical tents set up by the students and trackloads of food delivered to them from outside. Who was paying for it and organizing it in such a globally coordinated way was not explained. Last October, I saw one silent protest, organized by Muslim students at the Hamilton’s McMaster University. It was extremely peaceful, dignified, and based on verifiable facts. There was no violence or vandalism. No aggressive political statements were made. What has changed since then?

Israel has not succeeded in “solving the Palestinian problem”, although genocide of civilians and deliberate targetting of civilian infrastructure was (in my opinion) taking place and was sufficiently documented. Some legal action followed and external pressure on Israel began mounting. The Rafah “solution” was frozen. Attempts to internationalize military conflict (for example with Iran and Lebanon) were met with lack of support from Western countries, even from the United States. This is exactly when violent protests began at our Universities and received extensive coverage in mainstream media. Why?

There is more than one answer to this question. For starters, we are in the election year in the United States. Loud and massive protests create a perception of  aggressive anti-Semitism that threatens Jews and keeps them united under the Zionist’s flag. They also make the perpetrators look like victims. But, more importantly, highly publicized protests serve as an effective tool to redirect the attention of the governments, the media, and the public away from real issues and real causes of the Middle East conflict as well as from the current situation on the ground in Gaza and West Bank. Much has been written about it, so I will end here.

(More under the subtitle “Zionism” in the right panel.)