"There is a storm over my head," said Bank Hapoalim chairman Dan Dankner at the Globes Finance and Capital Markets Conference today, referring to the effort by the Bank of Israel to oust him from his post. Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer, who is making the demand, was sitting in audience directly in front of him.
Dankner chose not to talk about the Bank of Israel, choosing instead to launch an unprecedented assault on the coverage against by Hebrew daily "Haaretz" and its economics supplement, "TheMarker".
Dankner said, "A very particular media instrument, which once declared that it was for thinking people, continues, as is its wont, is thinking for the reader, and for the government. In its method, either we follow its path, or we go to hell. Freedom of the press is important for all of us, but there's a difference between the missionary zeal implied in commentaries and news articles. When see these, I can't but wonder to myself: what's the agenda?"
Dankner continued, "I always envied those who are never wrong, who never stop to think whether they were right, if they haven’t gone too far. And if experience showed that they gave rise to unnecessary disaster - good, what's so surprising, after all, they don’t have the time, they have to rush forward, and reach the next target in their purge that knows no bounds, because new targets will always be found."
Dankner made specific reference to the attacks on the integrity and the loyalty of Bank Hapoalim's (TASE: POLI) board of directors. He said, "The campaign is not being waged only against me. This is a system. Bank Hapoalim's board has excellent people. It's a board that took an extremely difficult decision to cut its losses, and at the right time, and which saved the bank from immense losses. What arrogance to call such a board a board of marionettes."
Dankner displayed cautious optimism about the economic crisis. "The economy has had an easy ride through the crisis so far. We're seeing the first signs of a flowering, but we can say with the obligatory caution, that the slow crawl away from the economic abyss has begun."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 13, 2009
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