People have a right to exist, but the countries they live in do not. Should a country betray all measures of law or humanity, why their leaders should be arrested and all its institutional structures erased.
We have the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials as a template. At the end of the Second World War, the victors decided to remake Germany and Japan by locking up their former leaders and shredding their social structures. These weren't perfect trials, but they did create an expectation that such horrendous war crimes would never be allowed again.
Two million people are being starved to death in Gaza. There are no hospitals, schools, or residential buildings left. There is no water that is fit to drink, nor sewage systems to keep the population safe. There is nothing left but the bombs, missiles and drones that eat up everyone's families. And the killing goes on, night and day. At least the Nazis tried to keep their mass slaughter secret, something that doesn't seem to worry the Israeli Defense Force. The pro Israel Lobby has spent tens of millions bribing Congress and the president to look the other way.
So when Israel falls because the rest of the world finally cuts it off, we know who should go to jail and what societal structures should be destroyed. Racial apartheid must come to an end, as should all the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land. Israel, that failed colony of Western imperialism and racism, must cease to be a state.
Fred Nagel
Ceasing To Be a State
Israel Bonds: A bad investment for N.Y.
Ancram, N.Y.: I was shocked to read Tom DiNapoli (photo) call himself a progressive in his bid to win reelection as state comptroller (“Earning a new term as N.Y. comptroller,” op-ed, June 7). Progressives don’t support genocide, and New York State employees shouldn’t want their pensions invested in it. Aside from the obvious moral objections to his investing in Israel Bonds, it doesn’t make fiscal sense.
From Drew Warshaw’s research (to whose candidacy I’m not committed): “It turns out, the government of Israel actually issues two types of bonds. The first are traditional sovereign bonds and can be freely traded between investors on ‘secondary’ markets. These bonds comprise 10% of our pension fund’s holdings. The second type, which represents 90% of our pension fund’s holdings, cannot be traded without the express permission of Israel’s government and thus must be held to maturity. This second type of sovereign bond is nearly unheard of in capital markets because the credit risk an investor takes on is total. If Israel’s finances begin to erode, if its credit rating falls, or if New York’s pension fund simply needs to raise cash to pay beneficiaries, unlike similarly-rated bonds from Ireland, Japan, Spain and the like, there is no getting out of this position. New York is stuck.
“Is it possible that New York taxpayers are compensated for this unique risk? Is the return on this special class of bonds so enticing that it is worth owning such a disproportionate amount? Not even close.”
Dave Hall