“There is a yearning for the prime minister to say, ‘I’m responsible … I’m responsible for this failure. We’re going to make this right.’ That’s what people didn’t hear.”
Israeli entrepreneur Amit Bendov considers his country’s commitment to democracy and tolerance of dissent as essential ingredients for innovation. That’s why, earlier this year, he was critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial overhaul.
Now, in the aftermath of the devastating Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas militants on Israeli civilians—what Bendov describes as “the worst week that we’ve experienced since the Holocaust”—priorities have shifted. Bendov says protesters have rallied around Netanyahu and Israel’s government in light of the horrific attacks and the country has come together to fight back.
“People who were labeled as ‘scum of the earth’ or as ‘anarchists’ are now volunteering, they’re the first to fight, the first to volunteer,” he says. “It’s like the citizens are taking actions into their hands where the government is leaving a lot of gaps.”
Bendov argues that concerns about the government have not gone away. First and foremost is figuring out the “major military failure to one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the world.”
Adds Bendov: “There is a yearning for the prime minister to say, ‘I’m responsible … I’m responsible for this failure. We’re going to make this right. That’s what people didn’t hear.”
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