WEBVTT

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The Middle East. Once again, it's at the

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center of world events as a horrific attack by Hamas

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in southern Israel has triggered outrage throughout Israel. Those

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who are living in limbo waiting desperately to learn the

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fate of a loved one, especially to families of

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the hostages. You're not alone and around the world

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. I found the attack on Israel horrifying as is

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the prospect for more loss of innocent lives. We

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have witnessed a humanitarian nightmare and thus far the markets

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have responded with calm, waiting to see what comes

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next. The big issue in, in a place

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like the Middle East today for investors is does it

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expand, will it move into a regional conflict bringing

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in nation states like Iran and then ultimately impacting things

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like the price of oil that would have an impact

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on the global economy? But war always brings with

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it risks for the economy on the economic side.

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You know, Israel with the reserve army, uh

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cannot really uh withstand the long term mobilization of its

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forces because uh much of the economy shuts down,

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many stores were closed down. Those stores that are

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open are seeing their shelves cleared of uh of goods

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as people stockpile when it comes to Israel, the

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effects may be particularly important in the tech sector.

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About 18% of our GDP is driven by the high

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tech industry. About half of our exports. There

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is a certain percentage of the workforce which has been

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enlisted into reserve duty. We uh um we estimate

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that number to be about 15% of the uh of

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the workforce in high tech. You have to remember

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if you're a start up company and that number can

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go up to 25% or more. And given Israel's

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key role in the international tech ecosystem, those effects

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could reverberate far beyond the Middle East itself. It's

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hard to find any significant venture players who aren't active

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in terms of backing Israeli companies, you know,

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Israel has this huge delegation of companies traded in New

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York. Uh Today, 100 unicorns are operational in

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Israel. We are already in a capital constrained environment

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where companies are cutting their costs, letting people go

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, you know, trying uh uh very, very

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hard to make sure that they can, uh you

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know, get to break even or close and then

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make sure they can continue to develop their businesses.

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Then this comes along and this is not great in

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terms of a capital raising environment.