Gigi Levy-Weiss is one of Israel's most prominent entrepreneurs in startups and new technologies. He has founded six companies, an investor in 150, and finally founder of his own fund, NFX, in Israel's Silicon Valley. He criticizes the campaign in Gaza and the lack of vision, trusts in Israel's reset and recognizes that social networks – in a way, its creatures – harm the West and benefit chaos.
Why hasn't he gone abroad with his family?
We are in a reset as a country after ten months of divisions. My entire family – wife and three children – now does volunteer work, although we could have gone to Thailand, where we spend a month of vacation every year. There are few countries created in the context of a holocaust. I have never wanted my children to think that the basis of our existence is to prevent another holocaust. That was a vision of the Israel of the past and for years I have worked to create a vision of the future, a startup nation that illuminates the world. But even when I was 110% into it, there was always a part that reminded you that if Israel didn't exist, Jewish people might do well in the world... or they might not do well. We want to be part of the refounding of Israel. Whenever a reset is done, things can get better or worse. If we don't do it now, we will emerge worse than we were.
And new leadership?
Definitely! I have fought this Government for ten months. You have to assume your responsibilities. Netanyahu empowered Hamas years ago with money, but when you feed a snake thinking that's why it won't bite you, you're wrong.
Innovation, vision of the future. And on the 7th, they kill 1,400 Israelis and now Israel responds with bombs. How is it combined?
Many Palestinians I know are embarrassed by Hamas. I know that feeling well. Years ago, a Palestinian boy was burned alive by fire set by settlers. I couldn't stop thinking about that child for a month, the shame I felt as a nation was so great... and he was one. Every normal person can understand that 1,400 were murdered, mutilated, shot in front of their children, raped, with tractors that piled up corpses and burned them to give the Jews another memory of the Holocaust. If we extrapolate, it was as if 45,000 people had died in the Twin Towers.
The ghosts of yesterday...
For years, Israel's raison d'être was that it would not happen again, we have worked hard to change that reason and become a nation of startups, modern agriculture, tourism... We wanted to be a good country. And suddenly we have been dragged into the memory that our main raison d'être is that never again. We are a nation in trauma.
Does that justify the bombings in Gaza?
I am very concerned about how we are doing things, relatively poorly on all fronts. What would I have done? First, focus on making sure everyone understands what has happened here. No videos have been released for the dignity of the dead and it is not true that the world knows what happened on October 7. Second – and I said it early and to the politicians –, we must not lose our moral standards; And how is that achieved? Detailing the vision of the future. Saying that we want to put an end to Hamas is not having a vision of the future. What would I have said? We are very strong, at the same time we are different. It would have started by building a camp with tents for women and children in southern Gaza, guaranteeing water, food, doctors. Once ready, you say to the north: this whole area is going to be a war zone. No alternative. Ultimately, our vision is that there will be an international coalition that will deal with Gaza. We have no intention of returning to control of Gaza. Invite the world and make a Marshall plan. By not doing it we are basically losing our moral foundations and people don't understand what we are trying to do. Hamas is a concept, and you can't kill a concept. Israel is going to kill a lot of people and then withdraw or not: neither option is good. We don't have a plan.
How does this war affect the technology sector?
I wish nothing had happened, but Netanyahu's judicial reform had a more negative impact, because in ten months many people thought that perhaps it was not the country they wanted to live in. Now the opposite happens, there is a feeling that it is worth it. We have gone from I don't like the country that the Government wants to the country that we want to create. We are going to have an influx of Jews from the US, while with the judicial reform the best ones left. For the tech ecosystem it will be positive.
And for the whole?
Very hard. The war costs us 250 million dollars a day. People are not paid salaries, companies are closing. I am not very sure that the Government is aware of the depth of the crisis.
Are you concerned about the growth of anti-Semitism?
The rate at which it has happened indicates that these are not people who listen to the news and decide they don't like Jews. It is clearly anti-Semitism, which has always been there and is now rearing its head. I find it relatively shocking how little attention governments pay to it and its great magnitude.
What do you attribute it to?
It is also a result of the elevated Muslim communities – and I have nothing against them, it is just that they have planted bombs in many countries. The problem of radical Islam is bigger than Israel's. Many countries do as we do when we ignore the effect of Hamas controlling Gaza. Few people are enough for a tragedy. Many European countries are ignoring this context of Islamic radicals. This is more than a territorial dispute.
Networks exacerbate...
Iran and Qatar are playing a leading role in social media and on US campuses. Qatar has sponsored many campuses with billions of dollars. And the most serious thing is that Iran, with money from Qatar, employs thousands of people in the so-called mind influence programs (brainwashing) that use social networks, use bots to create content, especially on TikTok.
Iran and Tiktok?
Perhaps guided by Russia. We know for a fact that there are thousands of people in Iran employed in this…And they are especially trying to crack Western solidarity. We in the West have the feeling that if we do good, we receive good. That if we let others lead their lives, others will let us lead ours. That we must leave markets free because people will choose what is good for them. The reality, sadly, is that the world does not work like that, it is also run by people who enjoy chaos.
And how do you combat that?
Traditional media have regulated limits and the responsibility of journalists. Social networks do not have those regulatory limitations and fake news is the majority of their work. In retrospect, I think the emergence of social media is negative for the world. Because of its diabolical use, not because of the initial good intentions. It's crazy for me to say it, because I am a technology entrepreneur who doesn't want anything to be regulated, but it is too big a threat and specifically for the West, because Western countries use it less with that negative intention.
And can we regulate them?
Can be done. You have to try it. It's sad to say, but - and someone can tell you how much money I made - when you say that there are 50,000 dead in Gaza or that the massacre of October 7 never happened or that Israel didn't kill anyone in the war... a newspaper would be sanctioned, we have to regulate the networks. It is not easy nor is it good for technology companies. But governments have to start thinking. Only they can do it. There is no choice, because we now see that the agents of chaos are using this to destroy the social well-being of many. History shows us that democracy must defend itself against the threats that democracies, by their very nature, allow.
