What caused Greece’s downfall? Not inefficiency and exorbitant pension terms. Not ouzo and sirtaki parties. Greece fell because of the culture of lies that prevailed in its leadership. Greece’s leaders deceived the whole world about its macro and budget figures – until it all blew up in their face.

A culture of lies that comes from ministers and prime ministers has a destructive quality. It penetrates every walk of life like a virus and teaches the public to cheat – not to pay taxes, not to carry out contracts and not to keep promises. Ultimately this destroys the economy and erodes the state, driving it to unemployment – like in Greece.

In Israel they call it Isra-bluff. Now let me tell you the latest example of this — the child allowances.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon boasts of the “reform” he drafted with deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, under which a child will get a 15,000 shekel savings account at the age of 18. Kahlon doesn’t say that the forced savings will come from reducing the child allowances and that this is in fact a blatant, harmful interference with the autonomy of families. This means a flagrant blow to the benefits enjoyed by all families in Israel.

The treasury says the saving accounts will be managed “in one of the banks,” but politics is stronger. Over time the politicians will set up a bureaucratic apparatus that will make sure the money is “properly” and “responsibly” invested. For this the “Litzman fund for exempt children” (exempt from the need to serve in the army) will be established, headed by a senior official with lots of staff, who will manage it for every child. Eventually, a public board will be formed to head that fund, to see to it that every child receives a card on his birthday. And how much will all this cost us, the taxpayers? Who cares? We’ll never know.

But the most annoying thing is about the Israbluff. This whole unnecessary mess was generated just to submit a budget next week with a “seemingly low” deficit of 2.9 percent, although the real deficit is actually much higher.

This is how the ruse works: Those monthly 50 shekels intended for savings will not be entered into the 2015-2016 budget that is to be submitted to the Knesset shortly. The money will be included only as of 2017, and the debt for 2015-2016 will be paid then too. In other words, the 2015-2016 budget will not show all the state’s expenses.

The treasury economists played this trick partly because they had no choice. They are in an impossible position, having to work with spendthrift politicians who know only how to throw money around, and are not the least bit concerned by the size of the deficit. The trick was also intended to persuade Kulanu and Habayit Hayehudi to reduce the coalition funds they’ve received.

The problem is that this isn’t the only Israbluff. It comes in the wake of the previous Israbluff regarding the “general expenditure.” This concerns the rule stipulating that the state budget will increase by 2.7 percent next year, although it will actually grow by about 4 percent. That’s because they’ll tell us there are “irregular defense needs,” which will require a one-time payment of some 4 billion shekels, although in 2015 there was also such a one-time payment. Is there no limit to the deception?

The International Monetary Fund economists know exactly whom they’re dealing with. In their last report they harshly criticized the frequent changes in the government’s budgetary goals and wrote that Israel’s real deficit is about 1 percent higher than the declared one, due to incorrect entries regarding the financing of the public debt.

If the deficit isn’t a deficit and there isn’t even an effort to keep the “general expenditure” at the recommended level, it means we’re on a take-off runway heading straight to Greece.