The decision to cut compensation to Israel Defense Forces reservists by a third was stillborn, and everyone knew it. What is worrying is not that defense officials sought to reduce compensation to reservists, but rather that they did not understand the significance of their decision and did not foresee the negative reaction of the public and the media. Given that defense officials heap praise on the minority of Israelis who do reserve duty and point to reservists as examples for the rest of Israeli society, how could they dare cut reservist compensation? The rationale was that since more reservists than usual were mobilized this past year due to Operation Pillar of Defense, the compensation pie had to be divided into smaller pieces. But how could defense officials be this blind? According to this rationale, if there was a increase in the number of children being born, the size of child benefits provided by the government to parents would be reduced. Bank Leumi's decision to forgive 150 million shekels ($41 million) of Nochi Dankner's debt also stood no chance. This wasn't because Bank Leumi needed that money, but because the public clearly felt that no one else in the country but Dankner would get such a deal. A public that feels discriminated against will always defeat the wishes of Bank Leumi CEO Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, come what may. Nothing ties these two stories together except for one common denominator: They show that the heads of Israel's banking and defense systems are disconnected from the general public. In terms of proper conduct, Russak-Aminoach, like Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, had the right to ignore criticism from the media. They could have said that, despite the public uproar, the decisions were theirs to make. They could have stuck to the unpopular decisions and rode out the criticism. In cases like this, one could disagree with the decisions but admire the willingness of the decision-makers to absorb verbal fire and continue on their way. But this isn't what happened. Instead, they amateurishly made unseemly decisions as if they were acting in a vacuum. When caught in the act, they didn't stick to their guns, but rather retreated. The reservists will get their money and Dankner won't have his debt forgiven, but banking and defense officials emerge tarnished. They deserve credit for the final decisions, but not for how they reached them.
