Not within living memory do the old timers of Israel’s legal system recall such a spectacle: a no-holds-barred battle is being waged over a hefty $1.2 billion prize, between a brother, his sisters and a mother no longer young. The props in this grand drama surrounding the estate of the late Shoul Eisenberg are a vanishing will, burgled safes, mutually contradictory affidavits, blows beneath the belt, disaffected ex-care-givers, disinherited family members and some mysterious shares. The two main contenders are Erwin Eisenberg, pretender to his father’s throne in terms of both status and property, and his sister, Liz Hardy, dead set on totally excluding her brother from the family’s businesses.
A lean, nun-like figure, Hardy seems almost lost in the vastness of the Kfar Shmaryahu villa. When her children are not at home, she has three dogs and a dozen puppies to keep her company. Her imperfect command of Hebrew attests to the fact that she usually speaks German, English or Japanese. Yet the modest demeanour and the quiet speech belie a steely determination to get the better of brother Erwin, virtually at all costs. In a first interview granted by an Eisenberg family member since battle was joined four months ago, Hardy exposes a wealth of detail on the life of the family and the fight for the succession.
"Globes": How can a son and his mother get into such a fight over money?
Hardy: "It’s a tragedy. How can a son take the whole cake and leave nothing for his mother? That is not what my father wanted. Father wanted harmony in the home, and for the head of the family to take care of everyone, especially of Mother. He was a very humane man, a good father, that I could go to with any problem I had. I would say to him: ‘Papa, I need you right now, let’s sit down and talk’ - and he always gave me good advice".
"Globes": Erwin, on the contrary, claims your father kept you at a distance from him.
Hardy: "Erwin has his version; I am telling you mine".
"Globes": Is this whole battle over money?
Hardy: "The battle is party over money and partly over power. The power-mania of Erwin and Yigal Dimant (brother-in-law and manager of Israel Chemicals, I.L.), who always acted in concert. In 1991, their intrigues resulted in a situation in which all the brothers-in-law, including my ex-husband, were thrown out of the company. I left at that time, because I could not cope with their intrigues".
"Globes": Does the family, as it appears today, deserve to hold assets such as the Israel Corporation, ICL, Zim and the Oil Refineries?
Hardy: "Yes, because that was my father’s dream. In recent years, he felt closer to Israel than he did ten years ago. He spent much more time here, and held all sorts of events at the house in Savyon. Every morning he would take a walk in the garden with Mother".
"Globes": Was Shoul Eisenberg a romantic man?
Hardy: "In recent years he was romantic and really took care of Mother. When she and I travelled abroad, he would ring her every couple of days, and ask me to buy her whatever she wanted. Sometimes she would see something she liked, and I would call him and say ‘Papa, Mother wants this’. He would say: ‘Buy it for her’".
"Globes": All the same, in his last will, he left her very little.
Hardy: "I think none of these wills have any validity. When I spoke with him the last time I saw him, it was on a Friday in March, we discussed a trip I might take with Mother to the United States, to get a second opinion on her pace-maker. He said I need not worry about her, that to the end of her days she would live like a lady and get all the treatments she needed, and they were very expensive. Her bought her a special Audi 8A, which is a very high-priced car. It was already on the way but Yigal cancelled the order".
"Globes": Could your father possibly not have left a clear will?
Hardy: "My father told me he had brought his will up to date. But if he did that in Israel, it will never show up, because whoever was holding it has already destroyed it. He was pedantic and took care of everything. For example, whenever I travelled abroad, he saw to it that I had tickets and hotel reservations. There were so many changes that took place in recent years, and it would not have been like Father to fail to update his will".
"Globes": Didn’t your father’s death bring previously existing friction to the surface?
Hardy: "No. Five months ago, this was a normal family. There was never any tension because Father was a very dominant type, who did not want to hear bad things about family members.
"Globes": Would it not be logical for your father to have left the control to his only son, whom he brought into the business over the years?"
Hardy: "He knew very well that if he left the control to Erwin, nobody would get anything. He knew us all. I spoke with him very frequently, and he always said that in the end, he would put the money into a trust fund with three trustees. If that had happened, we would not have been warring with each other today".
"Globes": What is you mother fighting about? Isn’t two million dollars enough for her?
Hardy: "When my father was alive, the house in Savyon cost $1.5 million a year to maintain. Let’s say that now it will cost $500,000-600,000. In that case, the money will be enough for three years, but what then? And what about the other houses? All her life she was a lady. Should she have to step down a rung now?"
"My mother’s war is not over money for herself. She is doing this for the children and the grandchildren. She doesn’t want what happened to her, with her housemaids and security guards and chauffeur being thrown out, to happen to the children. She is a 75-year-old woman, she needs the housemaids, she can’t drive, Meanwhile, we rehired the chauffeur, we hired new guards and brought her two domestics. Mother is fighting because she has nothing, and today she has to finance everything out of her own pocket".
"Globes": What does Erwin mean when he says you brought shame upon the family?"
Hardy: "My feeling is that Erwin cannot say anything bad about me, because people in Israel know me. I do not know what he means, that really is a question for me, and I would like him to be specific. I am not afraid of what he is liable to bring out, because I have a clear conscience, and I feel good with myself. Unlike Erwin, I will not hide behind my lawyers, and I am prepared to defend myself.
"Globes": Were relations between you always like this?
Hardy: "No. Possibly, his divorce from his first wife hurt him very badly. Erwin is two years younger than I, until a certain age I was stronger than him, until, when he was about 12, he punched me, and I never quarrelled with him again (Hardy laughs). He was a charming child. Something happened to him after the divorce. Yigal is his sun, who gives him wrongful guidance, and I think he is also getting bad legal advice".
"Globes": Is there any chance of a tete-a-tete meeting between the two of you, to resolve the crisis?
Hardy: "Before Passover, I tried to initiate such a meeting, I spoke with Erwin and with (Adv. Yaakov - I.L.) Ne’eman, and of the fact that at a certain stage the lawyers would be out of it - but Mother is not prepared to meet unless (Adv. Yaakov - I.L.) Winrot is present. At present, the initiative must come from Erwin, and I will make no difficulty about it. But Mother is very hurt, because she does not understand why Erwin is doing this".
"Globes": How can a mother not understand what he son is doing? Was she remote from you when you were children?
Hardy: "When we were growing up in Japan, each child had a Japanese nurse, we would compete as to who would be better dressed, and our parents used to travel a lot at that time. But when I was growing up in Switzerland, I saw more of them, and I do not feel that I lacked a father and mother. I don’t understand Erwin either. As long as father lived, Erwin did not have control, so the problems that exist now could not have existed then".
"Globes": Have you been sleeping well over the past four months?
Hardy: "I have all sorts of thoughts running around in my head at night, and I don’t sleep too well. It’s a tragedy that this has happened. We could have given up without a struggle, and then Mother would remain with her $2 million, and within 2 years, Erwin would liquidate everything, because he cannot wear Father's shoes. Is it fair that Erwin should have a billion dollars and mother $2 million? It’s a pity we are quarrelling about money, but, ultimately, that is what has happened, because one party wants 100% of the cake and is not prepared to concede anything. In conversations with the lawyers ,he said he was prepared to give Mother $5 million - and that is peanuts".
"Globes": Is there still a chance of a compromise?
Hardy: "There has been so much mud-slinging, for example, the allegation that we stole money from the drawers, whereas, the fact is that Father never kept money in the house. Mother has to go to court to ask for maintenance, this is a shame and a disgrace. In Erwin’s place, I would have said to her: ‘I got 80%, but tell me how much you need’. That is what Mother would have done, if she had received 80%. Also, no compromise is possible that leaves Esther out, and she will always be an inseparable part of the family".
What about Erwin and Yigal, in any possible compromise?
Hardy: "Erwin and Yigal must not manage the business, because their ultimate intention is to sell it off piecemeal. If Mother asks, I will be prepared to take part in the management, but I have no ambitions in that direction. Father’s dream was that the family would manage his businesses, and that is possible only through co-operation, but without Erwin and Yigal, and there are sufficient heirs beside them. Failing any other alternative, and it hurts me to say this, we may have to appoint an outside manager for the family’s businesses, or sell off the assets, so that there will be nothing to quarrel over".
Perhaps the solution is to divide the empire into two?
Hardy: "That cannot be done, because it would be very difficult from a business point of view. Erwin would take the best companies for himself, and leave us the not-so-good. But I have a good feeling that we will win in the end. We have plenty of cards, and I am sure of myself in relation to September’s hearing. My intuition tells me it will all be over this year".