I read in the newspaper last week now the US Chief Negotiator on the
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Martin Indyk, met with a group of Jewish
leaders to brief
them on the "tightly held" details of what was being proposed by Secretary
of State John Kerry. A few days before, New York’s new mayor Bill de Blasio, who
had run for office pledging a new openness and transparency for the city
government spoke privately at
a dinner hosted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The
gathering was not on the mayor’s public schedule, received no advanced
publicity, and was closed to outsiders. A journalist who succeeded in entering
was forcibly removed from the premises. At the meeting de Blasio went way over
the top even for a New York politician, saying that it is "part of [his] job
description to be a defender of Israel" and that AIPAC "would always have a
friend and ally at City Hall." He went on to assert that defending Israel is
"elemental to being an American because there is no greater ally on earth."
How de Blasio, a lifelong progressive, squares his commitment to undying
fealty to AIPAC with his undoubted knowledge that the group is possibly the most
virulent advocate of war with Iran this side of the Israeli government itself
might best be left to his conscience, if he has one. And if there was any doubt
that there is something rotten in New York, the State Senate meanwhile passed
a bill by a vote of 56 to 4 rejecting the use of state funds to support any
institution that boycotts "certain countries or their higher education
institutions." Senator Jeffrey Klein, the bill’s co-sponsor boasted that he
would "not allow the enemies of Israel or the Jewish people to gain an inch in
New York." The bill is directed against attempts to divest from or boycott
Israeli institutions but it clearly in Klein’s view does not apply to those who
are taking every possible step to cripple Iran prior to attacking it.
It should also be noted that New York State, though lacking a foreign policy,
is not exactly a disinterested observer of what goes on in the world. Thanks to
folks like Klein and the former New York City and New York State Comptroller
Alan Hevesi the city and state have been using pension funds to invest
in Israel Bonds, which are widely regarded
as a huge Ponzi scheme in that they pay the interest for older bond issues by
issuing new bonds, which will eventually result in a huge and unsustainable
balloon of money due. As the bonds are dollar
denominated, Israel can default without any damage to its own economy,
making it a bit like being able to print money without actually having to do so.
Meanwhile, the income from the purchase of the bonds goes to Israel tax free and
can be used for anything, including settlement expansion. It is all part and
parcel of the enormous cash flow from the US to Israel, much of it invisible,
that occurs every year, but in this case the money frequently comes from state
and city pension funds.
For what it’s worth, Hevesi was recently released
from prison after being convicted of a $1 million pension fund fraud.
Watching the shenanigans of those in power suggests that those who have gained
most from New York State’s largesse tend to be those who have the political
power and access to have their interests served, no matter how parochial or
unwise, while the taxpayer and state pensioners will ultimately be left holding
the bag when the Israel bonds eventually do a Madoff.
Read the entire article
