Who says the free market rules don’t apply in Israel? Yes, the only remaining living socialists in the country are indeed hi-tech billionaires, but at the same time, the economy is quite able to spew out the violent extremists at the top without the need for police interrogations and free speech curbs.
A case in point: during a conference of the Israeli bar association earlier this month, attorney David Hodak, a partner in one of Israel’s largest firms, Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg, Shenhav & Co., threatened onstage: “I decided that I will not live one day in a dictatorship and I will not leave the country, and if I have to fight for it – I will fight.”
Hodak added: “I talk to my friends from the military service, younger, and more mature, in the government they don’t understand the energy levels in the Israeli public and the level of opposition to this destructive legislative program. People are ready to fight with weapons…”
But on Tuesday, the same David Hodak announced he was leaving his firm and accused his partners of betraying him.
In the letter he sent the partners, Hodak stated that he was completing 40 years with the firm, and explained: “On February 1, I participated in a panel on regime change in Israel, at the bar association conference in Eilat, to which I was invited.”
After repeating his statements that I quoted above, Hodak wrote: “At the end of the packed day, I started receiving messages from acquaintances, that the firm I belong to is rejecting me. I was told that an email was published by the media, that went out to the firm’s attorneys and employees and was deliberately leaked to the media. The email begins with a song of praise for the firm’s position against violence. It says: ‘Regarding the statements recently heard in the media on the subject of legal reform (referring to my words in the media – David Hodak), it is important for us to emphasize that our firm calls for maintaining the rule of law… and condemns any kind of violence’ (a clear reference is to the violence in my words – David Hodak). ‘Our firm’ adds: ‘The words that David Hodak said in the media over the past day reflect his personal opinion only and do not in any way represent the office’s position.’”
“My title in the email is just ‘David Hodak.’ Not one of the partners or, God forbid, the head of the firm. In the end, I see the email as real betrayal … after being attacked by many media outlets … if this is not treason, I don’t know what treason is.”
So far, attorney Hodak has not called on his friends from the military service, younger, and more mature, to launch a brave attack on his treasonous former partners. Maybe I shouldn’t give him ideas (in case he’s an avid Jewish Press reader).
Eventually, Hodak gets to the only worthwhile part of his self-centered, whining missive: he probed the reason for the “treasonous” press release and discovered that members of the board of directors of Mekorot, Israel’s national water company and the country’s top agency for water management, apparently a major client of Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg, Shenhav & Co., “expressed dissatisfaction with my words against the government’s legislative plan. Mekorot’s legal advisor informed Esther that they were threatening to sever ties with the firm.”
So Esther sent out a press release to defend and protect the firm, which is what corporations do before one of the owners pulls out a gun and starts shooting innocent pedestrians on Main Street. Better before than after.
Like I said, ya gotta love the free market.
