Assault on Comrade

 Today, we received an email from the uni's police department, (yes, unis here have their own police department" seeking information about two assaults. One seemed like a drunken brawl late on a Friday night, but the other occured in a uni building in the middle of the day. There was also a picture of the assailant in the email. I was puzzled for a second, but didn't think much of it until we got an email from an economics faculty member saying it was one of our PhD students who had been assaulted while flyering. The student is active in the Palestinian solidarity movement and is never seen without a keffiyeh. And, he is scrawny, while the guy who asaulted him seemed well-built. There are plenty of DIF reservists lurking around the US, and he must have been one. And, in true IDF fashion, he picked a fight with someone much smaller and weaker than him. The IDF never enters a battle unless it has an overhwleming physical advantage. Which is why it plays cautious against Iran, over whom it has a sizeable (thanks to US support) but not overwhelming military advantage, while it masacres Palestinian and Lebanese civilians with abandon. It is a very efficient civilian-killing machine, but sucks at armed combat. But, coming back to the asault, I was incensed. I happened to be wearing my keffiyeh as I was supposed to attend which I learned at the last moment had been called off. I got a lot of smiles and compliments on the streets of Amherst and Noho and no hostility. But, I am a largish man, and not a natural target for the IDF. And, now as a tall strong-looking man I feel I should wear my keffiyeh more often. I have never fought anyone as an adult, and there was time when I thoguht I should lean self-defence classes. Self-defence classes are great if they make you feel more confident, but they are not essential. The battle agasint Zionism will not be one solely with physical might, even though I believe that violent resistance against a genocidal colonial power is justified. The Zionists have too much money and too many arms. It will be won by millions of people in the US putting their careers and their physical safety, and in some cases their liberty and lives on the line, by turning up and speaking up against Zionism.