Christie announced Tuesday that he signed S-1923, sponsored by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, which prohibits investment of state pension and annuity funds by the state in companies that boycott goods, products or businesses of Israel. The most recent tweet is a quote by Hillary Clinton calling for a Palestinian state and equating settlement construction to rocket attacks launched at Israel, and is meant to paint her as pro-Palestinian and bad for Israel.
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In previous shows of support, Gov. Christie went on a four-day trade mission to Israel in 2012, and 16 state legislators went for a week’s visit in February.
Chris Christie said Tuesday that he plans to cast his ballot in favor of expanding casinos to the northern part of the state this November. The bans in NY and SC relate to companies that do business with those states?, while the IL measure also applies to the investment of pension-system assets.
Under the law, Treasury will be required, within two years, to “sell, redeem, divest, or withdraw any investment” in a company that is found to boycott Israel.
“Israel is the beacon of democracy in a region that is constantly in turmoil”, Christie stressed.
“Israel has been a vibrant trading partner with New Jersey, and making sure that we are not investing in companies that seek to hurt its interests or those of its people sends a clear message that we will not stand for this kind of discrimination”, said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen).
The director of the state Division of Investment will have four months to identify any current investments that violate the act, and report his findings to the Legislature. But the legislative analysts said it’s unclear whether the broader ban would help or hurt the health of the system given the imprecise nature of predicting future financial-market conditions.
New Jersey plays an important role in the relationship between Israel and the United States.
Republicans Abroad Israel is making an aggressive push to register the estimated 300,000 USA citizens in Israel eligible to vote.
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Rather than try and impact the conflict, however, by supporting organizations working to directly persuade the concerned parties-namely, Israelis and Palestinians-of the necessity of more equitable conditions for the benefit of both sides, the Open Society Foundations, ironically, took a much less democratic approach and instead focused exclusively on exerting outside pressure on the Israeli government.
