In order to make money while advertising their own moral superiority, many investment firms make a point of seeking to put their clients’ money in concerns that received good marks in “environmental, social, and corporate-governance” (ESG) terms. This means, in practice, that financial-services companies like Morningstar issue ESG ratings—based on the political flavors of the day—that then shape the decisions of investors. Morningstar’s ESG arm has come under fire, and also found itself running afoul of the laws of various states, for considering doing business with Israeli Jews a sign of social irresponsibility. Richard Goldberg comments:

Morningstar [recently] reaffirmed negative ratings for seven Israeli firms due to their operations in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, or their support for Israeli counterterrorism operations. Now it’s up to governors, attorneys general, and treasurers to rid this company of Israel boycotts once and for all.

Spain-based Construcciónes y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) is, [for instance] subject to a human-rights-controversy rating because it builds and operates trams in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. . . . Morningstar said CAF, like Bezeq and B Communications, [to which it gave similar bad ratings], was contributing to the maintenance and expansion of “settlements”—suggesting it is company policy to consider eastern Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, to be an Israeli “settlement” rather than Israel’s capital. Morningstar’s spokesperson also compared CAF helping Israel to expand light-rail access for Israeli-Arabs in Jerusalem to involvement in “rail projects that support Myanmar’s junta as it uses trains to move its troops, arms, and other supplies.”

In all these cases, Morningstar makes no allegation that these companies are involved in any violation of human rights. Instead, the alleged violation is merely providing non-controversial services or infrastructure in specific territory controlled by Israel. . . . This could trigger divestment and contracting bans in certain U.S. states, whose laws consider differential treatment of companies operating in Israeli-controlled territory to be a form of boycott.

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.