The Israeli Defense Tech Conference, aimed at tech companies working with the Israeli military, was scheduled for November at the Google for Startups campus in Tel Aviv.
The event, according to a listing posted on the event RSVP app Luma, was pitched at “founders, investors and innovators” looking to network and learn more about the defense tech space. It was co-sponsored by Google, Fusion Venture Capital, Genesis, a startup accelerator, and the Israeli military’s research and development arm, known as the Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D, or Ma’fat).
When The Intercept contacted Google, the event page disappeared.
Google was not only listed as the physical host of the event and one of its sponsors, but the event listing also included a notice that attendees “approve of sharing [their] details with the organizers (Fusion & Google)” as part of signing up.
When The Intercept contacted Google, as well as the other companies and venture capital firms on the event page, the event page disappeared.
It’s grim, but think about it like this. If you were in the gardening industry, wouldn’t it be good for business if your neighbor started a garden in their yard? Even if you weren’t directly in the gardening industry they may want to buy things like decorations to go out there. More time outside? Sun screen and bottled water are things you’ll need. Plastic bad for the environment? Get this new reusable water bottle that everyone is using!
It’s similar with war. It’s not so much that it’s the killing specifically, but regardless, it’s a massive endeavor that needs lots of supplies. Think about all of the logistics involved in shipping someone overseas and maintaining them there. Even if companies do it for cheaper, they’re not going to do it at a loss. The same way we see companies getting excited to cash in on the AI craze, we’ll see companies excited to try and extract whatever possible value they can out of war.
And honestly, same thing with genocide.