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City And State Invest In Israel As Anti-Zionists Demonstrate
A Texas rancher visits a kibbutz and asks how big is it. They tell him that tree is the boundary. "Are you kidding? At home I get in my truck and drive till the sun goes down, and I still don’t get to the end of my property." The kibbutzniks respond, "We understand. We used to have a truck just like that." Aharoni recycled that one at an Israel Bonds dinner this month at Gotham Hall in Manhattan where the honoree was Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO. Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, chaired the event. Broadway producer Stewart Lane said his sister was born the same year as Israel. Her eight-year-old daughter asked, "How old are you, Mom?" "I’m as old as Israel," Mom said. Next day the kid told everybody at school that her Mom was the same age as Moses. When it got down to the business of selling bonds, two comptrollers competed for the applause from the 200 guests. City Comptroller John Liu announced a purchase of $40 from the pension fund. The New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, saying "our investment money does good things," pledged an additional $25 million, for a total of $100 million from the New York state pension fund. Outside on Broadway a group of Palestinians and the anti-Zionist Hasidic sect Neturei Karta held a brief protest opposite several Israeli supporters who waved American and Israeli flags. The Development Corporation for Israel/State of Israel Bonds was launched by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion at a Madison Square Garden rally in 1951. In its 60 years the organization has raised more than $32 billion in worldwide sales to secure Israel’s growth as a global economic powerhouse. Comedian Elon Gold, who served as emcee, regaled the 200 guests with some new material. "This is like my bar mitzvah—only I’m getting paid less." |
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