Why is investing in Israel immoral but investing in Cuba is moral?

By Tom Quiner

The State Department considers Cuba to be a state sponsor of terrorism.

The State Department does not consider Israel to be a state sponsor of terrorism. Nor South Africa.

I mention Israel and South Africa because liberals at various times have called for disinvestment in these nations.

In the case of South Africa back in the 80s, the issue was apartheid, a racist system if ever there was one. Liberals said the world should starve the nation of capital to force change. It worked. Apartheid ended.

Today, the same liberals want us to starve Israel of capital because of their treatment of Palestinians.

Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz, a Jew, and a liberal, bristles at any comparison between Israel and South Africa:

“A nasty and immoral campaign is being waged around the world to damage Israel’s economy by coercing universities and other institutions into divesting their holdings in Israel, as some of them did from South Africa during the apartheid regime. There is no justification for the comparison between the two, and the divestment effort should be opposed by anyone who supports human rights.

As fair-minded observers understand, the two cases are entirely different. South African apartheid was a racist system by which a minority controlled and subjugated a disenfranchised majority. The campaign for South African divestment was inspired and joined by long-term advocates of neutral support for human rights across the board. Israel, by contrast, is a functioning democracy that guarantees full equality before the law to all its citizens, regardless of race, ethnicity or religion. The anti-Israel divestment campaign has been inspired by pleaders with a particular animus toward Israel and little commitment to human rights in general.”

Translation: the anti-Israel divestment campaign is fueled by anti-semitism.

Here’s what is fascinating: the same folks who call for divestment in South Africa and Israel now call for investment in Cuba.

For more than three decades, our State Department has listed Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism. Here is what our government says about our neighbor to the south:

“Cuba has long provided safe haven to members of Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).”

Senator Marco Rubio, whose family was forced to flee Cuba, provided even more detail on their terrorist connections:

“Cuba, like Syria, Iran, and Sudan, remains a state sponsor of terrorism. It continues to actively work with regimes like North Korea to illegally traffic weapons in our hemisphere in violation of several United Nations Security Council Resolutions. It colludes with America’s enemies, near and far, to threaten us and everything we hold dear. But most importantly, the regime’s brutal treatment of the Cuban people has continued unabated. Dissidents are harassed, imprisoned and even killed.”

Tens of thousands of Cubans have been executed under the Castro regime for disagreeing with Castro’s politics. Assets were confiscated without due process. Human rights don’t exist. Prisoners were tortured in “hard labor” camps. A tenth of the population fled to avoid persecution, torture, and death.

The president says that now everything is hunky dory. With the mere turn of a phrase, Cuba is now no longer considered a state sponsor of terrorism by the president, despite the absence of solid evidence to the contrary.

I am truly baffled.

Why is investment in a dictatorship like Cuba now considered to be good by liberals at the same time that they say investment in a democracy like Israel is bad?

4 Comments

  1. parrillaturi on November 26, 2016 at 5:18 pm

    Simple. Evil minded individuals view anything that’s good as bad, evil, immoral, persecutory, etc. and view bad as good, positive, embraceable, etc. I remember when he took over Cuba, in 1959. We applauded his jubilance, as we felt that Cuba would finally break away from a Batista’s tyranny. We were so wrong. Castro fooled the entire world, and those expectant Cubans, who longed for a positive change. As a Puerto Rican, with multiple Cuban friends, I can attest to Rubio’s statement. My prayer is that Raul will step down and allow for free elections, so that the populace will finally enjoy the freedom they have yearned for, all these years. Of course, these elections should be closely monitored. Wait for the onslaught of liberals, who having no understanding of the suffering Cubans have endured, defend Fidel, Raul, and their oppressive government. I join in their yearly cry, “Cuba Libre” or “A Free Cuba.” God Bless Our Cuban Brothers, and Sisters.



  2. d. knapp on November 26, 2016 at 5:25 pm

    The ans. is simple. Israel is not communist and has a deep religious well at it’s core. It’s immoral to support Israel for the same reason it’s immoral to be a Catholic or a fundamental conservative Baptist. It’s all in your view of God.



    • quinersdiner on November 29, 2016 at 9:38 am

      I would would slightly paraphrase your sentiments this way: it depends on one’s religion. Liberalism embraces a religion one can either call secular humanism or neo-paganism. Whatever you call it, it views anything Judeo-Christian as being the antithesis of its belief system, and as a result, immoral.