Israel Tech Mission - the week-long meeting in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem

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HARVARD ENDOWMENT INVESTOR AND OTHER BUSINESS LEADERS TAKE A SOLIDARITY TRIP TO ISRAEL
Harvard, a flash point in the campus fights over the war in Gaza, has seen controversy and activism over its endowment's investments in Israel.
https://theintercept.com/2023/12/19/investors-israel-tech-mission-harvard/?

DOZENS OF PROMINENT investors and business leaders traveled to Israel this week to show solidarity with Israel amid its war on Hamas, according to documents from the junket obtained by The Intercept.

The trip included top officials from private equity firms like Bain Capital; leaders from the tech industry, like a Patreon executive; and a managing director at the endowment investment firm of Harvard University, a school riven by political clashes around the Israeli war on Gaza.

The documents, which include an itinerary https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24229208-israel-tech-mission-itinerary-2023  and list of attendees https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24229207-israel-tech-mission-bios-2023, provide details about the weeklong meeting taking place in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, called the Israel Tech Mission. Beginning on Sunday, the meeting includes panels like "Tech in the Trenches: Supporting an ecosystem during wartime."

Participants will hold meetings with top Israeli officials, like President Isaac Herzog, along with opposition leader and former military chief of staff Benny Gantz, who joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet after the October 7 attack.

Shoring up investor confidence would be welcome news in Israel. The Israeli stock exchange — whose chair Tech Mission participants are slated to meet with on Thursday — suffered billions in losses after the Hamas attack on October 7, though it has gradually recovered. The market losses came in the wake of the reported withdrawal from Israel of some foreign investors when the country was roiled by Netanyahu's controversial attempt to roll back judicial independence.

The Israel Tech Mission is explicit in its support for the Israeli war effort.

"In every war there are multiple fronts," Ron Miasnik, a co-organizer of the Israel Tech Mission who invests for Bain Capital, told the Israeli business website CTech. "The attendees of this mission are here to help counter the war's economic disruption. We are focused on supporting and helping rebuild Israel's world-class tech industry."

According to an online application for the trip, a screenshot of which was obtained by The Intercept, attendees on the trip will have to pay their own way. "Attendees will organize their own travel," the application says. "Participants will cover their own trip cost."

Israel Defense Forces and Right-Wing Politicians
On the trip, the delegation will spend time with Israel's senior political leadership as well as military figures. The online trip application says attendees will "receive confidential military and political briefings from former Israeli Prime Minister Nafatali Bennett, as well as current Members of Knesset and senior military leaders."

The group, according to the itinerary, is scheduled to meet with Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, soldiers on Tuesday before taking part in a "solidarity tech reception" drawing on figures as diverse as the Israeli NBA player and venture capitalist Omri Casspi to the CEO of Goldman Sachs Israel. (In response to a request for comment, Goldman Sach's U.K. office said it had not heard back from its Israeli office.)

The Israel Tech Mission appears to have been organized by Itrek, a nonprofit based in New York whose logo appears on the itinerary and list of attendees. Itrek sponsors weeklong "Israel Treks" to build "appreciation for Israel among present and future leaders" so they can understand its "complex reality," according to the group's website. (Itrek did not respond to a request for comment.)

Israel boasts a robust tech sector. While pro-Israel figures have long touted the country's reputation as a "start-up nation," criticisms have emerged in recent years pointing to the role of Israel's defense sector in creating talent and funding research that becomes the locus of tech projects — effectively profiting off Israel's occupation of Palestine. The cyber specialists of the Israeli army's Unit 8200, for instance, are known for creating successful start-ups, sometimes involved in security work and even alleged rights abuses.

Close relationships between Israel's security state, its tech sector, and the U.S. technology community are common. Tesla CEO Elon Musk met with Netanyahu and top IDF officials last month to discuss "the security aspects of artificial intelligence," according to a readout of the conversation. The Israeli–Palestinian magazine +972 reported last month that advances in artificial intelligence have allowed the Israeli military to generate targets more rapidly than ever before.

Israel Tech Mission attendees, for their part, are looking to support Israel's tech sector.

"After October 7th, we feel it is critical for venture capital and technology business leaders to stand with Israel," David Siegel, CEO of Meetup and co-organizer of the mission, said in a press release. "Our trip was oversubscribed for attendees. The technology community recognizes the heightened need for support as many Israeli entrepreneurs and their workforces are on the front lines as reservists."

Harvard's Massive Endowment
The attendee list for the Israel Tech Mission includes a diverse roster of investors and business leaders. Among those listed are top officials at companies working in stock trading such as Vstock Transfer, a stock transfer firm, and TIFIN, a financial technology investment firm that employs artificial intelligence. Investors from private equity funds like Apollo Global Management and Entrepreneur Partners are also slated to participate.

The attendee list also includes business officials like Ariel Boyman, a vice president at Mastercard; Steve Miller, chief financial officer at the glasses retailer Warby Parker; Michael Kohen, who leads the autonomy and automation platform at John Deere; and Jeffrey Swartz, the former CEO of Timberland. (Vstock, TIFIN, Apollo, Entrepreneur Partners, Mastercard, Warby Parker, John Deere, and Swartz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Israel's War on Gaza
Also listed as an attendee is Adam Goldstein, managing director at Harvard Management Company, which helps oversee Harvard University's over $50 billion endowment — the largest on Earth. The endowment investment fund has been accused in the past of investing nearly $200 million in companies that profit off Israel's illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. (The Harvard Management Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Elite Ivy League colleges have become a flash point in the U.S. debate about Israel's war on Gaza. Harvard has faced a backlash from donors. Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, for instance, has become a strident critic of pro-Palestine students and what he says is the school's lackluster response to them — a battle fueled by years of resentment. And Harvard President Claudine Gay has faced, and resisted, calls to resign because of her response to pro-Palestinian activism and alleged antisemitism on campus.

In recent years, the movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel has gained steam at the university. Last year, the student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, faced a backlash for its endorsement of the BDS campaign — which, if successful, would see Goldstein's Harvard Management Company divest from Israel.

While Israel Tech Mission delegates are looking to boost the tech sector in Israel, the Israeli war on Gaza is also being used as a pitch for tech firms like NSO Group to improve their image back in the United States. The company was blacklisted by the U.S. when its phone-hacking software Pegasus was shown to be involved in rights abuses.

Lobbyists in Washington working for the company, which has faced cash shortages, have been using the Israeli war on Gaza to refurbish the company's reputation. In November, the NSO lobbyists wrote to the U.S. State Department to make the case for "the importance of cyber intelligence technology in the wake of the grave security threats posed by the recent Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and their aftermath."