Beyond the fact that you don't need a direct link to something to care about it,
I care about a great deal of things. I just don't do anything about them. Part of growing up is realizing that you can't beat the windmills.
have you ever considered that folks might have relatives in Gaza?
All of them? Each and every one?
I mean, you seem to be approaching this from your own personal perspective (some kind of isolationist thingy that priorities tangible cause and effect?), but have you also ever considered that this is an opinion that people don't have to share? It's not factual. It's rooted in your belief system, just as my opinions are mine.
I am approaching this from a rational perspective.
Any action comes with a cost and a benefit. This cost can be opportunity cost (other things you could have done with your time, energy and resources) but also actual practical cost in the form of what ever consequences it carries. The later being say getting expelled from school, getting imprisoned or getting into a fight with the worlds most militarized police force that has more traumatized veterans armed with assault rifles than a medium sized nations army.
And in the case of protest the benefit is either the profit achieved from who ever you are protesting against caving to your demands or the removal of what ever harm it is you are protesting from your person.
For an action to make sense and be reasonable the potential benefit of its success must outweigh the potential cost of taking it. And to me, that calculation just isn't there when it comes to most student protests in human history.
If you want to focus on this example, the students stand to neither gain any profit from the american government suddenly denouncing Israel and its genocidal war nor are they suffering from any harm as a result of that war that can be removed. So there is no benefit to be had. And the costs involve both the massive, insane opportunity costs of wasting the time they are paying for in the insanely expensive american educational system and the real piratical costs of getting into trouble.
So like, even if they 100% win and the government gives them everything they want they still just loose. And this is true for most student protests in human history. Like those times when students in Europe protested against americans being drafted for the Vietnam War. No joke, that happened. And no, I don't get understand why either.
In the US today kids go to uni today to drink, use drugs, have sex with as many and in as many ways as possible, play video games, denounce every value of their families, denounce every institution of their country and join any protest that lets them show their ass. All while whining and demanding that their every whim be fulfilled with alacrity. All funded by somebody else and certainly never paid back but forgiven by a particular political party in return for votes.
What were you thinking, is the question.
That's a whole other thing I don't understand as well. Like, I am from Europe and a Software Engineer by trade so maybe it's just a cultural thing. But when I went to university I knew bloody well that I was there in order to get the skills I would need to build a future for my self. Than again I also didn't have to take out massive loans I would newer be able to repay unless I absolutely succeed at making a carrier so maybe... no wait, I was supposed to have less of a motive.
So yea, I just don't understand student culture.
An American prof I know was at the Uni of California, Berkeley in the 1960's.
During one protest most students rioted in one direction, but he decided the computer room was free and ran into it instead. Sadly, he only managed to complete 117 iterations (out of 120) of a non-linear hydrodynamics program before the riot was over and he thought it best to stop. He got the paper published, but was never satisfied that he didn't quite manage to get a 120 term approximation.
Go Nerds!
Now this man I understand. He saw an opportunity to do something useful to him self and did it.