WARNING: This is a Business blog article having to do with the following subjects: Apathy. Narcissism. Arrogance. The shirking of responsibility. Not doing your part for the team. A grandiose sense of entitlement. Egocentrism. And the old adage, “It’s all about me.”
…there’s no doubt that you’re HOT, Ms. Refaeli. You are a super-model, having reached the apex of your profession. Sports Illustrated cover-model. Vogue. Elle. The camera loves you! And so do the men. You landed Leonardo DiCaprio after all. Quite a feat!
Ahhhh! The good life. Tiny bikinis. The finest restaurants. Weekends in Cannes. Red-carpets. Raking in millions!
Yet Ms. Refaeli…there is something that your adoring public might not be aware of.
Yes, Ms. Bikini Hottie. You grew up in the country that I call home. Israel. Yup. It’s a country in which it is both mandatory and a sense of great pride and honor for both men and women to serve in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). It is, in fact, the only country in the world where women serve in full-combat roles.
(Some women of the IDF)
Yet you, my darling never served. You never enlisted. You never put that precious body on the line. You sat and watched…and shook your ass!
You did, in fact, however, pull a well-known and well-documented scam to avoid military service. Your personal story of evasion and dodging has been documented in many credible and reputable media outlets (CNN, Jerusalem Post and the Wall Street Journal to name but a few).
Yes, you and those fine curves of yours, nearing the age of enlistment, already a model of growing success and fame, married a man, a family friend more than twice your age. Nope, married women are ineligible for service in the IDF. Very smart! And then, mere weeks later, you divorced him. Yes, there is a long paper trail, much documented in the press, as well as testimony by those in-the-know, that this was a scam-marriage. You yourself, in several interviews, even admitted it was a sham to avoid military service.
But Dear Ms. Rafaeli. It is not what you did to shirk your responsibility that has earned you today’s dishonor.
Nope, it is what you said, several years later, by then a successful businesswoman, super-model and multi-millionaire:
“I don’t regret not enlisting, because it paid off big time. That’s just the way it is…celebrities have other needs.”
It’s a problem endemic in the world of business today, Dear Bar. Greed. A sense of entitlement. Watching form the shadows as others spill blood, sweat and toil away. Narcissism…ME, ME. ME!!!
What you call “shrewd,” I call “cunning.” What you call “other needs,” I call “greediness.” And what you call “paying off big time,” I call “dishonor.”
Others serve here and regularly pay the ultimate price…to keep you safe when you come here for weekends to enjoy the beach and the discotheques in Tel Aviv, you smiling for the paparazzi every step of the way.
You too should have served. It would have been two or three years out of your life. But you were, and are, a celebrity and a succesful businessperson, and I guess getting your hands dirty just wasn’t your “STYLE.”
And for that Bar Refaeli…
You have been inducted into the Business Hall of…
.
.
Yonatan Maisel, the author of this piece, is a professional writer living in Jerusalem. And yes, he has proudly served his adopted country.
(On patrol in Jerusalem, circa 2005)
Bar Refaeli: The Latest Inductee to the Business 