Inside The Sophisticated Sales Operation Funneling Billions From US State And Local Governments To Israel

2nd August 2024

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has exposed where huge amounts of money comes from to fund Israel particularly since the war in Gaza.

In the weeks after the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, as the U.S. supplied billions in military aid to its closest ally in the Middle East, many state and local governments showed support through a lesser-known financial mechanism: investing in Israeli bonds.

Ohio's treasurer, Robert Sprague, quickly announced an additional $20 million state investment in the bonds, which are sold worldwide to fund Israel's government. "Now is the time to stand with Israel," he said in a statement. Joseph Abruzzo, the chief financial officer of Florida's Palm Beach County, pledged another $160 million in October alone.

Since the war in Gaza began, U.S. states and municipalities have bought over $1.7 billion in Israeli bonds, with Democratic and Republican officials alike touting the investments as acts of solidarity with Israel. A new investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists gives an unprecedented glimpse inside the sophisticated sales operation of Israel Bonds, the bond seller that's courted many of those same officials for years, potentially raising ethics concerns.


Image: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Thousands of pages of emails and other records obtained by ICIJ reveal Israel Bonds' tight relationship with institutional investors in the U.S., and how some officials who buy Israeli bonds have gained access to an often-glitzy world of gala dinners, cocktail celebrations, and private meetings with top Israeli leaders and senior military officials.

A spokesperson for Israel Bonds told ICIJ that the bonds are safe investments with steady returns, and described the the group's sales strategy as "just like any other business." But ethics experts say such dealings are not always so straightforward.

"These types of practices, the mixing up of the personal and official, seem to go well beyond what’s seen as acceptable," said Richard W. Painter, a law professor who was a chief White House ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration. Read more here.

Read more HERE with many details