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The Science Park corner in the Federal Republic of Israel? The right-wing in high-tech are afraid to speak | Israel Hayom

2023-02-13T08:52:15.581Z


Does it statistically make sense that almost no other voices are heard speaking against the protest and the strike? • Many high-tech executives who spoke with us in recent weeks were not ready to speak for a quote and identify themselves


"If you walked around our offices in San Francisco when Trump came to power, you would have come to the conclusion that no one voted for him. There is only one problem with this - statistically, it is not possible. So how did this impression come about? Very simply: those who supported him could not speak. We have reached a situation where, due to too much freedom of expression and the desire to be considered enlightened, a person cannot express his true opinion. This is exactly why our company does not express itself on the issue of legal reform. I cannot decide whether a certain percentage of the employees are for or against the reform."

This is what the founder of one of the well-known unicorns in Israeli high-tech told me recently.

Rather one who opposes the legal reform, and thinks that the government is acting too aggressively.

for or against.

Both sides must stop fortifying their positions.

High-tech protest, archive, photo: Yehoshua Yosef

But that manager, like many high-tech executives who spoke with us in recent weeks, was not ready to speak on his own behalf, for a quote.

Few agreed to refer to the reform and the protest against it, neither to the quote.

The individual votes for the reform and against the protest can be counted on one hand.

Where are the other voices?

How did it happen?

After all, in the end, the high-tech protest includes no more than a few dozen companies, a not particularly long list of names and figures that makes a lot of noise and receives generous media coverage (including by the writer of these lines).

Does it make sense statistically that almost no other voices are heard?

Even Channel 14 had difficulty bringing in the other voices.

An article about the fear of expressing oneself in high-tech was broadcast there under the title "The Martyrs".

"The High Court protects us all": the high-tech demonstration in the Sharona complex // Photo: Paz Bar

Martyrs is a nickname for the Jews of Spain who were forced to live outwardly as Christians, and kept their Judaism only in private rooms.

This is the phrase used by the channel to describe people in a democratic country who are afraid to speak out, as if they lived in a dark regime where only one side is allowed to speak.

"If you express the wrong opinion - colleagues will look at you with an evil eye. You will encounter stares and raised eyebrows," a 24-year-old artificial intelligence programmer who works at a small startup told me.

"Following a post on LinkedIn, I received a lot of private messages saying 'You're right, but I can't support you and say that.'

How healthy is a situation in which, with the exception of a few who are on the margins, many high-tech managers and investors are unwilling to express themselves on the subject, neither anonymously nor as a background conversation?

Come on say something as the responsible adult, I asked a senior official in Israeli high-tech, precisely from the left side of the map.

"Not ready to enter into this quarrel between the parties," he answered.

Another famous entrepreneur explained this silence simply: "They are afraid. They saw what happens to those who help the wrong side and how they harass them, and understood the hint."

Demonstration against the legal reform (archive), photo: Gil Kramer

Worldviews and opinions

Meanwhile, below the surface, the first buds of new voices appear.

"Right-wing people are starting to say that the lack of dialogue is starting to hurt them personally," a well-known investor told me.

"Now the talk is less about the reform itself and more about the damages - the danger of downgrading the credit rating, the weakening of the shekel, the registration of companies abroad and damage to Israel's reputation as a paradise for innovation and startups." Initial statements against the departure statements appear on the networks, which declare exactly the opposite - "We are staying".

The government thinks that the reform will lead to a renaissance of the judicial system.

The opposition claims - the end of democracy.

Since it is statistically impossible for only one side to be right - as things stand now, there is no choice but to call on both sides to stop fortifying their positions, and with all the difficulty involved - to focus on the only legitimate field: the arena of competition for worldviews and opinions.

Any other option is disproportionate.

In a reasonable political system, at least.

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Source: israelhayom

All tech articles on 2023-02-13

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