Miami-Dade still deep in Israel bonds despite budget woes — and genocide

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 “investment 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.”
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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.

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The post Miami-Dade still deep in Israel bonds despite budget woes — and genocide appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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