Residents at budget hearings urge county to defund
As it scrambled to cover a $402 million budget gap, raised fees and cut corners on some services, the county still found ways to shovel millions into Israel bonds at a time when most of the world is condemning what can only be described as genocide in Gaza.
Many activists and residents want the county to stop funding that conflict. It’s not just activists from Jewish Voice for Peace and other progressive groups putting Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in the hot seat over Israeli bonds. It’s her own son.
Ted Cava showed up to the second budget hearing last week. He didn’t speak at the podium. But he had a black t-shirt that said “Jews say Divest from Genocide” in bright yellow letters and he told The Miami Herald that it has caused a riff in the family. Levine Cava is the first Jewish mayor in the county. “But she’s wrong on this,” Ted Cava told The Herald.
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While most of the speakers during a combined 10 hours of public comment at two Miami-Dade County budget hearings this month were there to urge for 100% restoration of county funding to community based organization and the arts or beg for no 
increases in transit fares, quite a few called on the county to divest from the $151 million stash of Israeli government bonds that Levine Cava and commissioners have treated like a patriotic piggy bank.
Just this summer, the county quietly renewed another $20 million in bonds, while telling taxpayers to brace for belt-tightening.
“Unrestricted and unaccountable financial support,” is what activists call it. They argue that every dollar locked up in Israeli bonds could be used here — on transit, housing, infrastructure — instead of underwriting a foreign government’s war machine.
And they’ve got the receipts. Jared Simon of the South Florida Break the Bonds campaign said it’s not just a moral issue, it’s fiscal mismanagement: “That the county decided to further commit tens of millions of taxpayer funds to Israel — at a time when it is unable to fully fund its own budget and Israel, according to the UN, is killing or injuring 100 children a day in Gaza — should strike every resident of Miami-Dade as fiscally irresponsible and morally disgraceful.”
But county hall isn’t budging. A spokesperson defended the bonds as a “worthy investment” that still carry an A rating, even if Moody’s downgraded Israel last year. And Levine Cava has already framed the money as more than just an investment. Remember after the October 7 Hamas attacks? She announced an extra $25 million purchase specifically to “send a clear message that Miami-Dade stands together with Israel.”
The commission backed her up, passing a resolution co-sponsored by Micky Steinberg, Rene Garcia, Anthony Rodriguez, Kevin Cabrera, Danielle Cohen Higgins and Eileen Higgins, praising Israel and condemning Hamas.
At the first budget hearing, Steinberg, Garcia and Rodriguez doubled down on the policy.
Steinberg said the investment is purely a financial decision.
“These bonds have an average yield of 5.01%,” she said at the first budget hearing, adding that they are “i
nvestment grade,” and that it has “no budgetary impact” to the 2025-26 budget.
“I do reject the inaccurate and offensive narrative,” Steinberg said, but then admitted that the financial return was not the only factor. “My support is based on the investment quality and support for our ally, the only Democracy in the Middle East.”
She’s not entirely wrong. While there have been some signs of burgeoning democratic political process in places like Tunisia — where it has backslid significantly since the 2011 revolution — and Kuwait, which has an elected parliament but also a freaking king. The region is mostly comprised of authoritarian regimes. But some might include Israel in that, when it comes to Palestine. The government has been criticized by international human rights observers for years about the apartheid and occupation of Gaza.
Now, it’s escalated to genocide. It’ official.
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A United Nations commission of inquiry report released last week says there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out against Palestinians in Gaza since the start of the war with Hamas in 2023: killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births. It cites statements by Israeli leaders, and the pattern of conduct by Israeli 
forces, as evidence of genocidal intent.
But that’s not the only good reason to pull the money out. While Israel bonds historically have been higher risk so higher yield, many credit rating agencies have recently downgraded Israel’s sovereign credit rating. Moody’s cut it to Baa1, with a negative outlook, reflecting heightened geopolitical risk. S&P Global also downgraded Israel from “AA-” to “A+”, citing ongoing conflict and risk of escalation. Fitch likewise lowered its rating. The likelihood is it will slide lower. The outlook is negative.
Israel bonds may also be less liquid than, say, U.S. Treasuries. If you need to sell before maturity, it might be harder to find a buyer or you could have to accept a discount. So there are pros, sure. But there are plenty of cons.
And, of course, the moral issue. It may have been okay before. Tolerable. Maybe. But it’s not okay now.
The mayor insists the decision is out of her hands now that the clerk controls the county’s investments, and she’s stuck to carefully worded statements like, “No child, no human, should ever spend days without access to food.” But those posts haven’t quieted protests that keep dogging her town halls — or her own son’s decision to “take our family disagreement public.”
Read related: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava defends new budget, service cuts
Levine Cava was diplomatic when The Herald asked about the unusual family feud: “I know many, many people — including in my own family — who are extremely concerned about the situation, as am I, and exactly how we deal with it. Yes. There are differences, of course.”
Her son told the Herald that it’s a generational split with most Jewish families he knows. That reminds Ladra of most Cuban families she knows — but with the Trump thing.
Miami-Dade is not the only municipality in Florida whose investment policy specifically funnels money to Israel. Since 2016, every time one of these bonds matures, the county just rolls it over. The biggest single check was $60 million in 2020. Now the 
total sits at $151 million, spread across five active purchases. Of that, $25 million mature in November. Three more next year. And activists say it’s time to break the cycle. They don’t want the county to reinvest that money.
Meanwhile, Palm Beach County holds $700 million in Israel bonds — the single largest investor in the world — and Miami Beach doubled its stake to $20 million last year.
But here in Miami-Dade, the question is sharper: If we don’t have enough to cover the county’s own budget — when we are cutting abuelito‘s meals and closing a senior center and slashing programs and firing people — why are we lending money to another country?
Because let’s be real — that’s the people’s money. All the people. And they want the county to stop spending their money on war.
To learn more about the history, culture and pain of the Palestinian people, follow and subscribe to Pulso Oriente on YouTube.
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Brave reporting. And I think many Jewish people and people in general should not have to fear criticizing the actions of the Israeli government. That is not what being Jewish means. Shame on the people fear mongering others for criticizing the actions of a government and equating it the practice of the religion.
Wow the Islamophobia and tropes are wild here. The anti Muslim hate here only reminds some of us that the age old Israeli hasbara is deep at work. Reminds some of the same “Jews are rats” tropes during Nazi germany.
Palestine didn’t perpetrate the Holocaust, why do they pay the price for the horrors unleashed by Europe and Germany in particular.
Israel’s own recent reporting admits 83% of those killed are civilians. Admit it, they look more brown and dark than you so it hurts less. They are mostly Christians and Muslims so that’s ok? Are Jewish lives more important? Or are all lives important?
They are human too, mothers and fathers too who have lived a thousand October 7th’s since 1948 and especially after 1967.
Please read the 72 pages document on Israel’s war crimes and genocide in Palestine. Great, people have “so called” equal rights in Israel but we are talking about Gaza and West Bank which is not Israel. The whole equal rights cliche is so ill informed when Muslims and Christians in Israel are treated as second class citizens. Settlements are illegal and paid for by American tax payer money.
This stupidity of Israel wanted to commit genocide it could do it with a click of a button. Did the holocaust happen over night? Did Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo and rawanda happen over night?
Report from Dec 2024
Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
Lladra thank you for having the courage to speak about this from a fiscal morality POV. When your so-called ally is bombing 6 surrounding countries at the same time and constantly crying victim- beware. Israel is not our friend. Our friend makes us go to war with others when we would have had no problems with them.
Israel terrorists attacked King David hotel in Britain and USS liberty in 1967. Americans were killed. Israel kidnaps and kills American citizens in West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and kills journalists and doctors.
Anti semitism exists but to critique a foreign country is not anti semetic. It’s censorship. The rampant anti- Islamic hate here, the racist remarks against Arabs and Muslims is sickening and frankly never called out. You think we as a country are better off supporting Israel and fighting within ourselves?
Divest
Ladra,
5.01% interest and never dafaulted…I need to buy some.
In terms of the political side of the issue…
Genocide? Some people don’t understand the term. Israel could 100% kill every person in Gaza if they were really interested in genocide. They do their best to avoid civilian deaths while, while putting their own soldiers at risk. (What army does that?) Hamas doesn’t care at all about the civilians.
If Hamas would surrender the war would end…no more people would die.
Israel treats kids from Gaza in Israel at the Israeli hospitals and has done so for years. The Nazis did not treat Jewish kid. They bayoneted them. Shot them.
Muslims/Arabs in Israel have the same rights as all Israelis. They are citizens.
Only the terrorist are to blame. They take hostages. They kill hostages. Where is the outrage?
The world is full of antisemitic people and others with blessed ignorance. Some people liked the Nazis and still do. The world is full of ignorance and haters.
But genocide to some is Israel defending itself from those who did and would kill every Jew if they could. That’s a real genocide. The mission statement of Hamas is kill every Jew in the world.
Israel is fighting to survive from those who would do genocide on them if they could.
Hamas tried. They failed. To bad many innocent people have to die because of the hatred group called Hamas. I blame Hamas 100%. Any other interpretation is either antisemitic or just pure ignorance.
Hamas spent billions building tunnels and buying weapons. That money could have been used to help their own people. Hamas made their decision. They managed to kill 1,200 Jews and if not stopped by the Israeli Defense Forces, the toll would have been dramatically higher. Killing families, children, babies while they slept, bragging about it, making videos showing the murders, wonderful neighbors these Hamas.
You can have them in your neighborhood if you want. Israel needs to remove them all.
The topic is complicated. Unfortunately Hamas is winning this war because Israel has at times taken it too far and support for Israel is rock bottom right now. Hamas does not care about children or woman, it does not care about life.
Hamas only cares about the death of Jews and Israel. Period. So as support for Israel goes down, Hamas wins. It is a lose lose for Israel. I wish they could be more precise, I wish they could kill less people. But lets not say something this is not, this is war. People die in war. Israel needs to be better at lowering that number and providing better humanitarian support.
Lets also call it what it is. Hamas could end this war today. Release hostages, release control of Gaza, and don’t invade a country and kill innocent people. Provide peace for the region. Not even the other middle eastern nations want to take in Gaza refugees for fear of radicalization and terrorism.
Lets remember, 20% of Israel is Arab and has full citizenship and places in government. This is about terrorist not a race.
Ladra, you have never been afraid to speak truth to power, and I’ve never doubted your devotion to that principle. It’s the kind of journalism that this community needs (and sorely lacks).
But your willingness to call Israel’s genocide exactly what it is – a genocide against Palestinians and the people of Gaza – is the strongest case for your journalistic integrity. Someone wrote that if Israel wanted to commit a genocide, it would. That’s a profound point because it is true. Israel is indeed starving and killing Palestinians because it knows that no one will stop it. And this is confirmed by their leaders’ words as well as their actions.
Knowing full well the consequences in a country and city with a deeply influential Israeli lobby, you still dared to do what you’ve always done: speak truth to power.
Our county/city must stop funding a government committing genocide. Period.
Lladra:
The Jewish People have for millennia suffered at the hands of those in positions of power. Before there was an “Israel,” the word “Palestinian” referred to both Jews and Muslims living in what was, in modern parlance, “Palestine.” As we approached the creation of the State of Israel, non-Jewish Palestinians were offered the opportunity to share the land with their Jewish Palestinian brethren. They declined and, along with their non-Palestinian Islamic allies, chose war, believing they were entitled to what is now Israel, land the Jewish People have been connected to for as long, if not longer, than non-Jews. Granted, the existence of the Jewish People only dates to approximately 5,786 years ago (as of sundown tonight), but you get the point. We’ve been around longer than Islam and Christianity. The Jewish People have as much, if not more, claim to modern day Israel, including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and, yes, Jerusalem, as any other people on this planet. And, please do not forget, that Islam and Christianity are offshoots of Judaism. Jesus, assuming he existed, was originally a Jew. Islam also has its origins in Judaism.
What has happened, and is happening, in Gaza is atrocious. The political powers in Israel, led by religious zealots and a criminal Prime Minister, have inflicted wide-spread death and destruction upon the population of Gaza and the West Bank. This has been ongoing for decades. But do not think for a minute that this was started by the Jews as a People or Israel as a nation. They had the chance to live in peace and harmony. They and their allies chose war, repeatedly attacking the Jewish People in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, the First and Second Intifadas of the late 1980s/early 1990s and early 2000s, myriad terrorist attacks over the decades, and, now, 10/7/23.
The Jewish People have been maligned for millennia. From the crucifixion to Shakespeare to the Protocols of Zion and beyond, we have been the scapegoat for anything and everything the Christian and Muslim world feels necessary to pin on us. We have been an easy mark. We were obliterated in the Holocaust, we were forced to convert on pain of death during the Inquisition, we have been plundered and destroyed (First and Second Temple Periods), and we have been forced into ghettos and shtetls across Europe and beyond. All of this because we were considered “different.”
I have no complaint with “Palestinians,” Muslims or Christians as long as they allow me and my fellow Jews to live in peace and comfort. Stop demonizing us. Stop taking from us. Stop killing us. And stop expecting us to turn the other cheek when you do take from us, demonize us and kill us. I am not proud of how the government of the State of Israel has conducted a very necessary rooting out of Hamas and others who wish nothing but death and destruction on me and my People. But I stand by our right to do whatever is necessary for our survival. I stand with Israel and the Jewish People.
Happy New Year. May this coming year be sweeter than the last. Next year in Jerusalem.
Thank you for taking this on.
I once considered myself Jewish. NEVER AGAIN !!!
That our taxpayer dollars are invested against our will in GENOCIDE is a major cause of the decline and fall of the USA.
We need to protest this at every opportunity!
Sincerely,
Jackson Rip Holmes
In the beginning of this war, everyone was on the side of Israel, but at this point, there is no reason to subsidize the genocide that is happening in Israel. And we should definitely be selling the county-owned Israeli bonds. Genocide is not acceptable!
We need a two-state solution with the Palestinians having their own state! And aid should be given to the Palestinian side to help re-build.
It’s no surprise people who support Israel in its 76+ year genocide of the Palestinian people (like “Right Side”) would post a racist, hate-filled screed, full of outright lies. After all, if we learned anything from Holocaust studies, it’s that the perpetrators of crimes against humanity use all tools at their disposal, including dehumanization of their victims through propaganda to support their narratives.
Thankfully, as Ladra pointed out, what may have been questionable to some before is “not okay now” and with increased boycotts of Israel in sports, music, etc., similar to what we saw with Apartheid South Africa, these narratives are rapidly losing their power. In the end, Palestine will be free.
I was getting ready to write a long response. Although not my style “Right Side of History” hit the mark. Elaine, I have been a fan, but when you ignore the trigger for what has happened, for millenniums, throw in the Holocaust and escalating world wide Anti Semitism,”not to mention” the horrors of Oct 7, your piece went from reporting with your patented razor edge perspective, to in totality, is an an either a hateful or ignorant manifesto which throws gasoline on an issue near and dear to South Floridians. Governments don’t keep their cash in non interest bearing accounts: the put it in financial instruments.
History did not start on 10/7. Palestinians have lost their homes and been massacred since 1948. Open a history book. Meanwhile we funnel money to pay for Israel’s genocide and cut our American school budgets, healthcare and veteran care. Stop romanticizing settlements and Kibutzes. Every young person above the age of 18 is an IDF soldier. Reports of any rapes or babies being killed have been debunked again and again. The hasbara is strong with you my friend. Stop making it about Jewish or Muslim or Christian. Most Muslims are not Arabs, most Muslims are south East Asian and Asian. Arabs are also Catholics, orthodox Christians etc. These are land right and indigenous issues. Stop the colonialism of Palestine, stop giving money for a genocide that started way before October 2023. For 75 years children and women have been rotting in military prisons. Only country in the world that holds children indefinitely without trial.
Divest from genocide. America first.
This is excellent and important coverage of an issue more Miami-Dade residents should know about. Why is our local government sending our tax dollars to a single foreign government? That alone is bizarre.
The response from commenter “Right Side of History” is neither right nor based in history. It is copy-paste Israeli propaganda, dripping with islamophobia, meant to give Israel infinite license to commit acts of horrific violence and flout international law. As a Jewish person myself, I wholeheartedly reject their falsifications and their hatred and affirm that all people deserve lives of dignity and to exercise the right to self-determination.
Our money is directly supporting a regime that is committing a genocide for all the world to see—Israel’s actions have been declared to meet the legal definition of genocide by a litany of international organizations (including Israeli human rights organizations). This is unconscionable. All the while we have needs that go un- and underfunded here in our county.
It took a considerable mobilization of residents and advocacy groups to stop the proposed transit fare hike from being enacted with this budget; community organizations that provide essential services have lost funding or had to beg for their meager disbursement of county funds to support their operations. Meanwhile $95 million dollars of public funds were sent to Israel this year alone (on February 1 the County nearly doubled its investment in Israel Bonds with a $75 million purchase and $20 million of Israel Bonds was renewed on April 1).
Two minor corrections that make the picture look even worse: 1) S&P actually lowered Israel’s credit rating twice in 2024, down to “A” with a negative outlook (https://tradingeconomics.com/israel/rating). 2) It’s not just that Israel Bonds are “less” liquid or it could be “hard to find a buyer.” Something peculiar about Israel Bonds is that they have no secondary market. That means there’s no option to cash out early even with a discount (https://israelbondsintl.com/risk-factors/). There are no other investments in the county’s portfolio that carry this kind of illiquidity risk. Why are we making all these exceptions for investments that do such terrible harm, while we have so much need for those funds here at home? It makes no sense.
The false choice you present is almost as bad as the false narrative.
The county isn’t deciding between “lending miney to another country” or funding programs. The county would be investing that money regardless. Israel Bonds pay more than US treasuries. In more than 75 years, Israel has never missed or been late in a payment.
The genocide narrative began the moment the war did. It’s nonsense. If Israel wanted to wipe out the people of Gaza, they’re more than capable of doing so. Genocide requires the intent to destroy a people. The only people Israel is seeking to destroy are the members of Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza.
Shame on you for promoting the blood libels of terrorists and spreading the lie that this is a choice between budget funding and bonds.
Great explanation of the issues. The county must divest from genocide!
Genocide during a war? A war Israel did not start. Then what do you call the actual Genocide that took place on October 7th? The terrorist organization HAMa$, which governs so called “Palestine”, specifically targeted civilians in Israel, just like their brother Al-Qada did on the U.S. September 11th. These animals went into unarmed civilians’ homes, threw GRANADES into hiding spots, chased groups of teenagers running from the Love Music Festival with high power machine guns- eliminating one by one as if playing a fun video game-, they RAPED women, killed babies, ALL INNOCENT….. and what about all the suicide bomber events, bus and cafe explosions, and that awful explosion at a Jewish wedding that killed over 200… ALL these terrorist attacks ON unsuspecting civilians IN Israel over the past two decades before 10/7, all specifically targeting innocent, unarmed civilians, all targeting Jews, and intended to END JEWISH LIVES. All. THAT is what is actually the definition of Genocide, NOT what happens during a war, and NOT what HAMa$-controlled U.N. is calling it. And let’s not even get into how very QUICKLY the HAMa$ ONLINE PUBLIC RELATIONS campaign got to work IMMEDIATELY after their genocide event on October 7th, sorry, actually during their killings and rapings, TikTok videos were already blaming Israel, and the paid protestors propaganda machine was preparing their infiltration in America and Europe. It was a smooth, calculated, and years-in-the-making P.R. Genocidal campaign: KILL JEWS, MAKE THE WORLD BLAME THEM! And it won’t stop there, you Morons. Islamists want to rid the world of ALL “Infidels” –all who do not submit to their archaic beliefs- That means YOU, you, you, and even you, the indoctrinated followers who write articles like this, defending the Aggressor, HAMAS, and blaming the Victim, ISRAEL. Israel has had enough and is defending itself so that it NEVER has to suffer through another bus bomb, another cafe blowing up, another suicide bomber exploding in a crowded street while chanting ALLAH, and definitely never another October 7th… especially after what Jews endured during the Holocaust, which Arabs the world over celebrated Hitler for. OR, did YOU forget that period of time when Nazis indoctrinated Europe into thinking JEWS WERE RATS who deserved to die. Does that period of history sound familiar? Movies and flyers telling the weak to blame Jews for all their problems! Remember that? Imagine how many more Jews the Nazis would’ve killed if they had HAMa$’ propaganda machine instead? If Nazis had Twitter (X), TikTok or IG, or people like you writing online articles, if they could’ve reached billions of people, that’s BILLIONS with a B, with just one stroke on the keyboard, they absolutely would’ve been successful with their Final Solution, and ALL JEWS would’ve been eliminated from the world. All. And where would you all be now? Where would anyone that didn’t “Fit” Hitler’s “Perfect Race” be? He chased and killed Homosexuals, Hippies, Jews, and anyone who was not “PURE”, EXACTLY like HAMa$, and every Islamist Terrorist Organization like them WANT TO EXTERMINATE everyone who doesn’t follow Islam? Where would you be if Nazis succeeded? Where will you and your family be if Israel loses this war and HAMa$ succeeds? Where will you be?