NETANYAHU GETS RESULTS: He's been pushing the idea of having state pension funds divest from Iran--and his idea is getting results. In California:

The funds in questions, known as CalPERS and CalSTRS, manage over $400 billion between them. CalPERS spokesman Clark McKinley said that the version of the bill that passed would likely force the fund to move about $2 billion in assets, at a cost of around $25 million.

This is not the beginning of the plan to divest...

...Divestment efforts towards Iran go back at least a decade. The Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 slaps sanctions on foreign companies with investments of over $20 million in Iran's energy sector. Another member of California's delegation, Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, has submitted a bill to add additional sanctions.

...nor is it the end.

Last month, Florida became the first state to vote for divestment for Iran; it will redirect about $1 billion in state funds. Meanwhile, a Canadian Member of Parliament, Irwin Cotler, has been leading an effort to call for U.N. sanctions against Iran. Cotler cites the Argentine government's findings that Iran was behind the 2004 bombing of a Jewish Cultural Center in that country that killed 87 people.

Iran is on shaky ground economically to begin with.
It's only natural for the US to do whatever it can to help.
[Hat tip: Best of the Web]

Technorati Tag: Iran and Divestment.