1/ Like everyone I know, I’ve been horrified by the barbaric atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. I haven’t published a post about the terrorist attacks because I wasn’t sure if anyone is (or should be) interested in my opinion on the topic. I’m an early-stage tech investor, not an expert on the Middle East conflict. I’m aware that VCs chiming in on (and, maybe unintentionally, appearing to claim to have expert knowledge on) everything from pandemics to international politics has become a bit of a meme on Twitter. However, as more and more horrible details about the October 7 attacks have become known and as I’ve read more and more heart-breaking accounts from survivors and people who lost loved ones, I’ve felt an increasing urge to speak up. Talking to a few friends from Israel, I also got the sense that they appreciate anyone speaking up, even just to assure them that we’re not falling for Hamas propaganda that’s rampant now. So at the risk of stating a lot of obvious things, here’s my view. (1) The murderous attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians were a terrorist attack that cannot be justified by anything. I have great compassion for the Palestinians living in dire conditions in Gaza and the West Bank. The reasons for the bad situation of the Palestinians are complicated. There are no simple answers to this issue, and I don’t want to go into it further here. The point is that, regardless of Israel’s share of the responsibility for the dire living conditions in Gaza: nothing justifies the intentional killing of children and the murder of innocent civilians. (2) Israel has the right to defend itself and to do what is necessary to prevent attacks like this from ever happening again. (3) Israel must - and I believe will - aim to minimize so-called collateral damage, i.e. casualties amongst civilians. I don’t know what this means in practice when there are trade-offs. I know nothing about military strategy, but I’m assuming there are very difficult decisions to be made, where one military tactic minimizes civilian casualties amongst Palestinians but comes with greater risk for Israeli soldiers, and the other option is safer for Israeli troops but comes with more expected civilian casualties. I don’t know how the Israeli leadership decides in these cases. I’m glad that I don’t have to make these decisions. What I have no doubt about is that Israel will not intentionally kill civilians. That’s the big difference between a democracy like Israel and a terrorist organization like Hamas. (That doesn’t mean that democratic countries can’t do horrible things, too - think about Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, or My Lai.) (4) Unfortunately and tragically, a lot of innocent people in the Gaza strip will die in the war provoked by Hamas. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. The death of a Palestinian child is as tragic as the death of an Israeli child. It’s horrible to see the death toll on both sides increase with every day of this war, but make no mistake about it: Hamas is to blame for every single death. (5) I’ve mentioned above that some of the things I’ll write are obvious. The idea to hate people based on their ethnicity or ethno-religious group is so obviously stupid that it should go without saying. But given the surge of antisemitic protests and incidents not only in the Arabic world, but in many Western countries as well, including Germany, I’ll mention it nonetheless: Any kind of antisemitism is unacceptable. And Germany, in particular, must fight it decisively, with absolutely zero tolerance for intolerance. It’s hard to be optimistic that this war could be over soon, so I’d like to share a comment I’ve heard in a recent podcast interview by DIE ZEIT - the only uplifting thought I’ve heard about the current situation in the last two weeks.