Eyal Waldman: "Both Israelis and Palestinians are big losers in this war"

"In my opinion, there are no winners in this war. Both Israelis and Palestinians are big losers. The war is already behind us, inside Gaza today there is a fraction of the forces that were there previously. Now everything must be done to build the new Middle East and use the current crisis to do so," said Mellanox founder and Israel Prize laureate Eyal Waldman. Waldman, who lost his daughter in the Hamas massacre on October 7, was speaking on a panel held as part of Calcalist's Israel Resilience Conference, in which Chemi Peres, managing partner and founder of Pitango and chairman of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, also participated.

There is no lack of dramatic events in the last six months, but this week there is a feeling of a turning point. The IDF has almost completely withdrawn from Gaza, and we may be approaching a deal for the hostages. So, first of all I ask - did we win or lose?

Chemi Peres: "I am an optimistic person and believe in the strength of the people of Israel. I have no doubt about our continued existence. We don't have another country, but we also don't have another option. I think that at this time we should put more emphasis on lowering the flames that we have here within the nation. We need to accept the fact that there are people who think differently and need to have a conversation because our resilience ultimately comes from the ability to be together and not disintegrate.

"For the purpose of the matter, we need vision, faith, dialogue. We need to stop the fights, the hatred, move to legitimate struggles and debates and legitimate demonstrations, but respect each other. There is no other way. What happened at the beginning of 2023 is that we started to go in a different direction with the judicial coup.

"There is a place to make an amendment in the legislative and judicial system, but if you want to make an amendment, you have to do it with a broad consensus, with common sense and through negotiations. If someone tries to force something on another party and tries to make it happen within a day - it will fail, and we will go backwards."

Peres said that he "suggests to the right and the left in Israel to say goodbye to the idea of right and left and adopt a new approach of forward versus backward. We have gone back a lot, and we need to make every effort to go forward. We need to get stronger, correct, grow; let's put aside the arguments of right and left and we will go forward."

Waldman was recently announced as the winner of The Israel Prize for Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation after Education Minister Yoav Kisch backtracked on his previous decision to shrink the annual Israel Prize to a couple of war-related categories in order to prevent the prominent government critic from winning an award.

Eyal, Were you surprised by your saga with the Israel Prize?

Waldman: "I didn't think they would go so low. It's a shame that politics is brought into everything. I was debating whether to give up the award or not, but I think they messed with the wrong person, and Minister Kish continues to lie."

Will you come to receive the award?

Waldman: "I am very proud to receive the award; my family is proud of it, and I think my late daughter Danielle would also be proud of it."

Both of you are already looking ahead, the war is already over. Is it time for elections?

Waldman: "I think so, Gantz called for elections in September, and this is the latest date when it should be done in my opinion. I hope that the Prime Minister will take responsibility and resign, that is what would be most honorable for the Prime Minister to do. I don't put too much hope in it, but the elections should be as soon as possible. I was in several neighboring countries and they told me - we are unable to talk with your prime minister, we are unable to talk with your government, we have lost trust in them. Biden said that too. It is very difficult to work with the current government, so it needs to be replaced as soon as possible."

So should elections be held now?

Chemi Peres: "The beginning of correction is to take responsibility for what happened on October 7. I am not looking for culprits. It happens that the leader of a country thinks that a concept will work for the good of the cause and is wrong. It is permissible to make mistakes. The blame should be examined in courts, but a leader should take responsibility for what happened here."

Should Netanyahu resign?

Chemi Peres: "I didn't say that. First of all, he should take responsibility for himself, and then we should go to the elections by consensus. What is important is that a unity government be formed without extremists. I am not sure that if there are elections, we will get a different result than any of us would like.

"The fact that there will be elections does not mean that there will be change. I want change, to say goodbye to the extremists, to the extremes of the right and the left. I want a central bloc that is able to take Israel forward, that is able to make this amendment by agreement, because in the end, as my father Shimon Peres always said - we are a people blessed with talents but we lack one talent - to be a people, and this thing needs to be corrected in the elections. The sane right and left parties must come together and leave out Ben-Gvir and Smotrich and the extremists from all sides."

We need people like you in politics. Are you on your way there?

Waldman: "In principle, I'm less interested, but there is one constellation that I might think about. I really hope that there will be the right people to build our future, and that they will be of the highest caliber and we can support them. The candidates that are currently available can be improved."

We have been talking about national resilience until now, but I want to touch on personal resilience. Eyal, you lost your daughter Danielle on the 7th of October and Chemi, you lost your son Guy two years ago. How can you continue to smile and think about tomorrow?

Peres: "This is a very painful point. Our middle son Guy suddenly went into cardiac arrest. Anyone who hasn't experienced it will understand nothing of what I and my family are going through and what Eyal and his family are going through, and what the people who were caught up in the bereavement of October 7 are going through.

"I have quite a few friends who have lost children. My heart broke when I heard what happened to Danielle. I just fell apart. I try to keep things to myself because in the end no one can share in the pain and sorrow. I can say that what kept us going were very good friends who were not afraid to be close to us. Some were afraid, but there were those who were all in, and didn't let me be alone, and that helped a lot.

"The second thing we know is that our son and Danielle lived amazing lives," Peres continued. "I believe that like me, Eyal, knows that he will not be able to hug and talk to his child. Only because of this, Israel should strive for peace, to stop the killing of our sons and daughters, of our neighbors, it is time to stop with the demagoguery. If we want a state we need to return to peace, to a vision of resolving the conflict. At the same time, we must not accept terrorism. Our victory will not be in one battle but in the change of policy. We do not accept terrorism in either the north or the south, and at the same time strive for peace."

Waldman: "The most important thing is that we do what Danielle would have wanted, and that we continue to live and build. We owe it to all those who were slaughtered and killed in the war."