- This is a guest post by Kevin Baxpehler, co-founder and Managing Partner at Remagine Ventures
At the time of this writing Israel and Hamas just signed a ceasefire. I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on what was going on in Israel. After “defeating Covid 19” and returning back to a new normal, all of us were back indoors (offices, hospitality, etc). But none of us stopped working, creating, pivoting or innovating – except when we had to run for shelter.
Sheikh Jarrah is not the reason for the recent fighting
Over the past two weeks we saw two main conflicts. Both were supposedly kindled by the decades-long legal dispute over six apartments in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. Here is an article that provides a balanced view of that situation, but these 6 apartments were not the reason for the external and internal conflict we witnessed, more like an excuse by Hamas to attack Israel during an election period. The international press, politicians like AOC, late-night talk hosts and others have falsely portrayed this as an Israeli land grab, completely ignoring that this decades-long legal dispute is going through Israeli courts, which are independent and considered liberal.
The conflict with Hamas
One conflict is with Hamas, the terror organization running Gaza, which barraged Israeli communities with over 2,000 rockets over 11 days. Hamas is a radical islamic terror movement, which took charge of Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel unilaterally withdrew its settlers. Hamas has invested its resources into new ways to attack Israel instead of improving the lives of its own people, and thus was in need of a fresh round of fighting Israel to refresh its image at home.
But, this is also not exactly new to Israel. Everybody continued to work from home or the office. We at Remagine Ventures completed a new investment deal, continued working with our portfolio companies and in general saw IPOs, startups fundraising and succeeding at unprecedented levels. Israel’s high-tech industry did the same back in 2014, during the last major conflict with Hamas. Israeli startups never give up and continue to push forward even in dire circumstances. This stoic calm is part of our founder’s characteristics, ingrained already as kids and later in the army. It’s about not being a victim but about what you make out of the current situation.
On a typical day over the past 11 days we would have zoom calls or meetings, program, design, negotiate etc. just like on any other day – with the exception of grabbing our kids and running for shelter – day and night. After about 10 minutes we would return and continue with business as usual. We could often hear explosions above our heads when our missile defense system, the Iron Dome, shot down Hamas’ rockets.
I was saddened to see how some of the leading entertainment figures such as John Oliver and Trevor Noah have reduced this complex conflict to a one-sided attack on Israel. Their arguments ranged from comparing death tolls to as far as lamenting the fact that Israel has the Iron Dome, which shoots down most rockets launched at Israel, as unfair. The argument of a “proportionate” response is riddled with logical errors, e.g. is John Oliver suggesting we should also shoot 2k rockets indiscriminately at Gaza and not use laser-guided missiles, should we also use civilians as shields and set up our HQ under a hospital or allow more Hamas rockets to hit Israeli targets? If you want to listen to a very good response to the media bias, please watch this video. Another very good take on this is by a fellow Israeli VC, Adam Fisher, from Bessemer Venture Partners, who replies to AOC’s outrageous tweets labelling Israel an “apartheid” state.
And yes, Israel has shelters and the Iron Dome. The reason is that Israel invests in science and education while Hamas does not. Israel can’t control what Hamas does in Gaza but it can control how it responds and how it protect its own citizens, whether they are Jewish, Arab or Christian. For example, Israel’s building codes require to build shelters while Hamas uses its cement to build underground attack tunnels. The image below describes best how each side values life. On the right you see a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas at Israel with the purpose of hitting civilians. On the left you see Iron Dome in action, shooting down most of these rockets to defend the population. As a Jew who grew up in Germany and moved to Israel in 1999, I find this stoic philosophy Israelis display as one of the country’s key elements of success.
Our new, “new normal“
The ceasefire with Hamas will only buy us temporary calm until Iran has re-loaded Hamas for another round. Hamas’ objective is not to establish a Palestinian state but to eradicate Israel. Hamas does not build shelters or invests in education, its economy or trade. You can read its charter here. Its slogan is:”Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes”.
The Palestinian suffering will not end when Israel withdraws or agrees to any other demands. Israel has done that many times in the past. Palestinians will only start living a better life when their own leadership stops glorifying death and destruction and instead, begins to invest in education and science. But not one of the international defenders of the Palestinians, whether it’s John Oliver, AOC or the European Union is standing up for the Palestinian right to free speech, free elections or minority rights. Instead they are protecting their “victimhood” and culture of martyrdom – helping Hamas.
The internal conflict
The second conflict Israel has been experiencing is internal and is more disturbing to witness. We had both Jewish and Arab lynch mobs running around in towns across Israel. The Israeli police was overwhelmed and clearly understaffed. This was difficult to grasp for lots of Israelis as some of these towns have been touted as great examples of Arab and Jewish co-existence. There is not doubt that we as a society have to discuss our shortcomings and find courage to listen to each other. We have seen similar mobs across the world over the past 12 months. Often these are angry young men (but not only) and it seems to me that they lack a real purpose in life, which makes them vulnerable to extreme ideologies.
Final Thoughts
This will take some time to heal, and we will try to do our part. This is something we can change as a society and everyone should play their part. At Remagine Ventures, we are joining a program called “Power in Diversity” an association of over 35 Israeli venture funds and 130 startups working to make the Israeli technology industry more diverse. We have also been mentoring startups from the Arab and Jewish Ultra Orthodox sector over the past year as well as set up a pilot internship program for Ethiopian students in Israel. We need an honest discussion of how Israel’s periphery and minorities can increasing participation in the Startup Nation. Of course this will require a willingness to participate, which currently is still a challenge. But we see encouraging signs. Maybe this was a wake up call for all of us, especially for our political leadership.
Identity politics has destroyed a lot of trust within our own societies. We see this here in Israel as well. But I also have faith in the people of Israel and would not be surprised if we come out of this eventually more united. In the world of startups and investors we like to label business problems as opportunities. This is the attitude we need to tackle our social challenges as well. It’s all about how we respond. I want to finish by remembering Yigal Yehoshua z”l, who was beaten to death by an Arabic lynch mob in Lod. He was registered as an organ donor. An Arab Israeli woman received his life-saving kidney. She has been undergoing kidney treatment for 9 years. She spoke to Yigal’s widow after the operation and told her that “We are like family now”. Yigal’s family chose to give life instead of responding with hate and anger.
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