{"id":374641,"date":"2026-10-16T08:42:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T08:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/374641\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T08:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T08:42:23","slug":"nyc-comptroller-backtracks-on-buying-israeli-bonds-by-saying-they-arent-a-good-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/374641\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC comptroller backtracks on buying Israeli bonds by saying they aren’t a good investment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The comptroller of New York City, an avowed supporter of Israel,<\/a> has backtracked on his pledge to purchase the country\u2019s bonds, citing deteriorating credit conditions and financial risks in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark Levine, a Democrat who campaigned<\/a> on buying Israeli bonds, told The New York Times that he has decided against the move. Notably, his decision was not based on opposition to Israel\u2019s occupation of the West Bank or genocide in Gaza, but on its economic condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always said this would be based on financial considerations only, not politics – that\u2019s still my position,\u201d Levine said. \u201cBut as of now, we feel that because of some technical challenges, and because of financial considerations, that this is not an investment that we can make right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York City\u2019s purchase of Israeli bonds became a contentious issue in January 2026, after Levine told the Financial Times he was considering buying them, citing their economic performance.<\/p>\n

Levine\u2019s predecessor, Brad Lander, declined to buy new Israeli bonds in 2023. At the time, the city\u2019s pension fund held around $39m in Israeli bonds, generating returns of around five percent.<\/p>\n

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The city didn\u2019t liquidate its holdings, but allowed them to mature without reinvesting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

New York pension fund may invest in Israel despite Gaza genocide, defying Mamdani<\/p>\n

Read More \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

Levine made purchasing Israeli bonds a key element in his election last year. That set up a potential clash with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, who publicly backed divestment from Israel over its conduct in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The mayor does not have the authority to overrule the comptroller\u2019s decisions on bond purchases that fund the city workers’ pension system.<\/p>\n

Levine, who speaks Hebrew, waded into Israel’s upcoming election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a real closeness to the country, and I\u2019m also heartbroken at the state of politics in the country right now,\u201d he told The New York Times, criticising the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

Levine\u2019s defence of Israeli bonds came against the backdrop of several credit rating downgrades. In 2024, Moody\u2019s downgraded Israeli bonds, calling them an \u201cincreasingly risky investment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Moody\u2019s later reversed<\/a>\u00a0its outlook on Israel, but the bonds’ technical ratings remain below their pre-7 October 2023 level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The comptroller of New York City, an avowed supporter of Israel, has backtracked on his pledge to purchase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-374641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}