The sad public debate over the laying off of 800 Israeli Teva employees began too late. The right time to begin talking about the issue would have been that fine/dark day when global giants started buying up successful Israeli companies. As a run-of-the-mill citizen, I was filled with pride when billionaire investor Warren Buffett bought the Israeli company Iscar -- it was a nod of recognition to the success of the Israeli Wertheimer family (who founded Iscar). But even though Buffett is extremely fair, the pride was immediately followed by the fear of what will happen on the day the elderly investor is no longer in the picture. The same is true for Teva. (In fact, the same is true for every sale of every Israeli startup, which we usually regard as proof of the ingenuity of the Jewish brain. But personally, I prefer Gil Shwed's method of building a high-tech empire and keeping it here, in Israel). The moment Teva was sold to foreign investors, we lost to our right to discuss the management of the company in Hebrew. The early Zionist demand for "Hebrew labor" has disappeared, making way for the international market and the New York Stock Exchange. That is the way of the world. Israel has fully accepted the rules of the game. The Israeli government has provided attractive incentives to foreign investors. (After all, to this day no one regrets the benefits that former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin bestowed on Intel, which went on to set up shop in Kiryat Gat.) Israel's mistake was failing to attach certain conditions to the wholesale tax exemptions it handed out to investors. (Israel certainly should have taken sterner action against those companies that enjoyed the exemptions and still circumvented the Israeli government and took their profits out of Israel instead of investing them here. Also, local tycoons should have been under closer supervision.) But the fact remains: The Israeli government wasn't wise enough to stipulate these conditions. Therefore, the government can now ask Teva CEO Jeremy Levin to moderate the layoffs, but it can't force him to do anything, they way Opposition Leader Shelly Yachimovich's tone has been suggesting lately. She says she won't allow him to fire Israelis, but frankly, Israel does not have the option of breaking the code of conduct just because it finally realizes that the deal it made was too hasty, superficial and shortsighted. The result is indeed infuriating. The issue also came up on Tuesday in remarks made by State Comptroller Yosef Shapira. But Israel has no one to blame but itself and its leaders. On the other hand, Teva is an American company. Its CEO travels in a private jet and receives a travel budget as easily as if it were for a bus ticket in Tel Aviv. The shareholders in New York are pleased with the planned layoffs. They haven't heard about the upcoming primary election within Yachimovich's Labor Party. It is safe to assume that when the public uproar surrounding the layoffs began, they had no idea what the big deal was. Regardless, the Americans have a tendency to appear attentive. The layoffs will be slowed down, scrubbed clean. Perhaps, in light of the public outcry and the comptroller's harsh report on the issue, the government will change its policy. No more tax exemptions or trapped profits or any other tricks allowing the moguls and tycoons to avoid actually spending their own money. In the future, the public will get its tithe too.
But more than anything else, Israel must do everything in its power to protect its main asset -- its credibility and ability to fulfill international obligations. It is especially important to keep in mind that the people who enjoy these infuriating tax exemptions are actually the Jewish-Israeli owners of companies like Teva, and others like it.
