ISRAEL AT WAR
High-tech CEOs: Netanyahu is ‘disconnected from reality,’ must go
More and more high-tech executives are calling for the prime minister to resign due to his conduct managing the war with Hamas, and his refusal to take responsibility but to blame others. Such an evasion of responsibility at this level of leadership would be ‘ridiculous’ in the high-tech sector, they say.
Four CEOs from Israel’s high-tech industry are calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take responsibility for the failure on October 7, with some demanding that he resign immediately. Dan Adika, the CEO and Co-founder of WalkMe, a technology adoption platform traded on the NASDAQ with more than a thousand employees, says, "I am a right-wing person by nature. I am against interfering in politics, but I changed my tone following the war. It altered the fate of the country, but our leadership is doing a terrible job of uniting us. Netanyahu has crossed every line, and his recent post on X was the last straw. Many of my friends on the right are shocked by how he blamed the heads of the Shin Bet and the IDF during the war.
“I don't see a functioning government; the only people actually taking action and trying to unite the country are private companies and citizens. The government here isn’t doing anything. There isn’t just a military campaign to run, there's the education system, agriculture, and the economy. You watch the prime minister’s press conferences and just feel depressed."
Israel’s war against Hamas broke out on October 7 when thousands of Hamas terrorists broke through Israel’s border with Gaza, massacring scores of Israeli civilians inside Israeli territory. At least 1,400 Israelis were murdered, mainly civilians including children, women and the elderly, with tactics reminiscent of ISIS.
Thousands more were injured and over 200 people including women, children, babies, the elderly and soldiers were abducted by Hamas into Gaza in order to use them as bargaining chips against Israel. In response, the IDF has been attacking the Hamas infrastructure in Gaza for three weeks in an attempt to dismantle its rule.
Adika is adamant that, "Netanyahu must go as soon as possible,” even he says there are some who believe that leadership shouldn’t be changed in the middle of a war, and to discuss it later. “He is an unworthy leader and must leave. I call on my right-wing friends and right-wing Knesset members like Avi Dichter, Yuli Edelstein, and others to establish a broad government as soon as possible. He had the opportunity to unite everyone and do the right thing. Whatever I felt and believed before October 7 is in the past. We sit at home and hear these things, and are raging inside. Our people are strong, and Netanyahu is irrelevant. There needs to be a leader and a government that unites the people, and I say this with a heavy heart."
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Verbit, an AI-based transcription and captioning platform, has about a thousand employees worldwide, half of whom are in Israel. During the war, it provided its translation services for free to help disseminate information to the world about the war and to combat anti-Israel propaganda. Co-founder and CEO Tom Livne criticizes the prime minister's evasion of responsibility, saying, "As the CEO of a company, the responsibility is always on me - I cannot blame the manager below me. The prime minister is our CEO, and this huge disaster happened on his watch. The accusations he made against the army and the Shin Bet are not credible. He doesn't take responsibility. There are not many founders of high-tech companies who reach this level of leadership and don't take responsibility for themselves. Our prime minister is detached from reality and simply looking for someone to blame."
Joel Bar-El, Co-founder and Chairman of the company Trax, which specializes in technology-based inventory management and employs about a thousand workers worldwide, including 150 in Israel, says, "There is a lot of talk about the issue of taking responsibility, which would be ridiculous in the high-tech industry. It is clear that whoever leads the system is responsible, and there is a difference between responsibility and blame. Whoever manages a particular body, whoever is at the helm, is responsible, and that is self-evident. If I, as a manager, don’t meet the goals, the board holds me accountable. I am responsible for both the good and the bad when it comes to the organization. It is very clear who is responsible but not who is to blame."
Oz Alon is the CEO and Co-founder of the company Honeybook, a financial management platform for small U.S.-based businesses that employs 230 people worldwide, including 130 in Israel. He says, "Everyone I know in the business world is busy with the war - not with themselves, not with their business, not with their company. Everyone is focused on one thing: success, winning the war. We expected that the person at the helm would focus only on Israel. We have sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers to defend this country, and at the same time, our leader is posting against these very people."
The four senior executives discussed the new reality imposed on the companies they lead since the war, including that a significant number of employees have been drafted into the military, and many others are unable to function fully.
Livne says that 23% of Verbit’s Israeli employees were conscripted to the military, including himself, "I was a fighter in the Paratroopers Brigade and I was conscripted at the beginning of the war. There were equipment shortages, so I organized donations for everything we needed." Livne, whose company is a unicorn with revenues of tens of millions of dollars, says that he has heard about many companies being forced to lay off employees. "I hope that government assistance will reach companies where a large part of their employees were called up for reserve duty."
He also addresses the difficulties facing investors during this time. "I have seen and heard that many VCs for the first time, feel like startups who need to tell a story to investors and see the gap between the story and the actual situation. The VCs are facing problems with their investors who inquire about Israel's situation. I hear from many investors that Israel's geopolitical risk has increased."
Alon says that in his company, he has not only supportive and appreciative employees but also those who accuse Israel of human rights violations and crimes. "Employees of the company who wrote against Israel broke my heart. I am sure of the justice of our war and that we take as much care as possible not to harm the innocent. I’ve seen statements like this even from people who have visited here, and it breaks your heart. The absolute majority supports us including employees, customers, investors, and even our competitors." Adika adds, "We’ve felt support from all over the world, Australia, Japan, and more. After a week, we understood that we needed to get back to business and we’ve come out stronger."
