When Comptroller-elect Mark Levine won this summer’s Democratic primary for Comptroller, he claimed it as a win for an expansive, progressive vision of government, pledging to “stand… firm against attacks on our values from Washington DC”. But one of Levine’s only concrete promises as the city’s next financial watchdog is morally outrageous, and a likely violation of his fiduciary responsibilities: Levine has pledged to buy Israel bonds. That means using city pension dollars to offer generous loans to the Israeli government, despite major credit rating agencies like Moody’s warning that Israel Bonds are an “increasingly risky investment.” Over the past two years the state of Israel has devastated lives across Gaza, flattening neighborhoods, bombing hospitals, schools, mosques, and churches, killing journalists and doctors. We are Jewish city employees who are appalled that a soon-to-be citywide official in New York is pledging to fund what  human rights experts around the world have determined is a genocide, by gambling with the hard-earned pension dollars of city workers. 

Last year, outgoing Comptroller Brad Lander declined to re-invest in Israel bonds when the previous bonds matured. This was both a profound victory for the movement to end US complicity in Israeli war crimes and a common-sense financial decision, made in the spirit of good governance. While bad-faith critics from the right have smeared Lander, who like Levine (and ourselves) is Jewish, for singling out Israel, he rightly pointed out it was the status quo that treated Israel as exceptional: Israel was the only country in the world that the city was loaning unrestricted money directly to in the form of bonds. What’s more, the money invested in Israel was part of a pool of assets intended for short-term cash management, not long-term bonds – meaning that this decision potentially caused our city to miss out on key returns for city programs in the short term. Israel had received special treatment for years in the interest of politics: Lander ended that exceptionalism, and Levine is seeking to restore it.

As Jewish city employees, we know that New York’s pension fund holders don’t want to loan their money to Israel. Recent polls reveal that more New Yorkers sympathize with Palestine than with Israel, and that over half of Americans hold an unfavorable view of Israel. In the same election that Levine won, voters elected Zohran Mamdani to be Mayor – someone who supports keeping city money out of Israeli bonds. Even beyond politics, choosing not to re-invest in Israeli State bonds is simple financial prudence. Israel’s economy is both deeply embedded in its government’s ongoing oppression, and increasingly unstable: business leaders from within the country have warned of a possible “spiral of collapse,” and its credit rating continues to fall toward “junk” status. Giving city pension money to Israel involves an unacceptable level of financial risk. 

And then, of course, there is the question of what Israel will use our city money for. Bond purchases are essentially blank checks, underwriting every one of the Israeli government’s actions: which has spent months blockading food and medicine from dying civilians in Gaza, maintaining segregated roads and communities in the West Bank, bombing neighboring countries and assassinating politicians across the region, and murdering tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians. Selecting this country – in the midst of unprecedented carnage – as the single state we must invest in is not acceptable. And, given the political nature of Levine’s reinvestment pledge, it is a likely violation of his duty as a fiduciary. 

Mark Levine can choose a different path. He has time to change his mind, to listen to the financial experts and consult city policies that define his duties. The Comptroller-elect can reverse course and pledge to maintain his predecessor’s policy of not investing in foreign countries, even those who obey international law and maintain strong economies. Levine can follow the chorus of elected Jewish leaders who are awakening to the catastrophe that pro-Israel absolutism has enabled, and moderate his politics in response to changing conditions. Such a gesture would be a profound act of bridge-building, fostering goodwill with a growing majority of New Yorkers who are critical of the Israeli government and its American enablers. It would show that he is not an anti-Palestinian ideologue in a party that overwhelmingly opposes Israel’s actions, and allow him to start his term with a crystal clear focus on delivering financial stability for New Yorkers, instead of an endless, dirty fight over the politics of the Middle East. 

Levine’s choice on Israel bonds will be the first, and perhaps most important test in his term as comptroller. He wants to maintain an image as a collaborator, a common-sense leader who will sit down with anyone and seek compromise over conflict. He rose to power, too, on the basis of a strong environmental record, portraying himself as a leading climate champion. Using his bully pulpit to send city money to an unaccountable and unstable government, one that routinely destroys orchards, farmland, desalination plants, and precious human lives, emitting massive volumes of dangerous gasses in the process, would be an awful way to start a stint as a citywide elected. It’s not too late to change course, keep Lander’s investment policies in place, and earn a fresh start with goodwill from New Yorkers of all backgrounds. 

Josh Heisler is a New York City public school teacher, and is a member of the UFT and Jewish Voice for Peace.

Katie Ehrlich works at the New York City Department of Records and Information Services and is a member of DC37 and Jewish Voice for Peace.

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