Letters
March 28, 2008

Has Israel
abandoned us?

We have all watched as Silda Spitzer stood by her husband as he told the world that he had cheated on her. She looked ashen, as if she’d rather be anywhere else, but must have been driven by some sense of duty or loyalty.

When I see Silda, I think of those of us on the religious right who are married, in a sense, to Israel. Israel has become a cheating husband, or a drug addict, or a child molester. Israel no longer fights the enemy who fires missiles into her daily. It hardly reacts to the murder of yeshiva students at their desks. It retains a corrupt coward like Olmert, and a weasel like Peres. Their most dedicated people are now demonized as “settlers.” Yet, we religious Jews continue to stand by Israel’s side, dazed and confused.

As many have told Silda Spitzer this week, it’s time to throw the bum out. It is time for those who love Israel to cut her off until she straightens out her act. No visits, no donations, no Salute to Israel Parade, nothing.

No, we will not be abandoning Israel; it is Israel who has abandoned us.

Eva Gold

Highland Park

I helped finance the genocide in Sudan!

To my shock and horror, I realized that some of my investments are in companies that have branches in Sudan. My international mutual fund has the stock Total SA. Total SA is a French energy company that does business in genocidal and terrorist-sponsoring states, including Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Syria.

Now that the State of N.J. has decided to divest from terrorist-sponsoring states (Sudan and Iran), it is time for me to divest also.

Anyone interested in divesting from genocidal and terrorist states can find more information at http://www.DivestTerror.org. Those interested in a genocide/terror free mutual fund only have a choice of two funds: Roosevelt Anti Terror Fund (BULLX) and FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange) Terror Free Index (available after 03-18-2008). 

Those interested in terror-free stocks can look up the top five holdings of these two terror free funds.

Investments in genocidal, terrorist-sponsoring countries provide them with the hard currency and the economic wherewithal to continue genocide and terrorism. By demanding that our pensions plans, IRAs and 401Ks divest, we put economic and political pressure on genocidal and terrorist countries.

In a unified front, we should make the pledge that “This is my money and it will not go to support genocide or terror.” Http://DivestTerror.org is a nationwide campaign aimed at some 400 public companies worldwide that are providing revenues, technology, and moral cover to governments that sponsor genocide/terrorism.

The primary objective of this campaign is to force governments to choose between their sponsorship of terrorism and critical partnerships with publicly traded firms.

Does divestment work? Remember in the 1980s, divestment succeeded in ending apartheid in South Africa. Its success, however, can be assured only if you and other Americans enlist in our campaign to divest from terrorism. Each and every one of us can help wage the war on genocide and terror by opening new divestment fronts through our universities, local communities, and states, individual retirement accounts, churches, and unions.

Now, patriotic Americans can once again do their part to fight genocide and terror.

Jeff Weinstein