Unicorns and Hedge Funds Follow the News

The discharge of Ronen Bar, Head of General Security Services (Shin Bet), by Netanyahu requires appointment of his replacement. Since the GSS is responsible for investigating Qatargate, public – and judicial – discussion of the discharge was foreseeable, evolving into discussion of the legality of the Prime Minister appointing Bar’s replacement. In this past week’s news, his candidate, David Zini made no attempt to mitigate the controversy, unless you find comfort in his statement that the Israeli judicial system is a dictatorship controlling the country.

Hilltop Youth attacks on Palestinian towns in the West Bank reached new levels. Pogroms. Sorry, no other word for it. Last week, confrontations between Hilltop Youth and the army and police, showcased different law and enforcement rules for Jewish terrorists than Palestinian terrorists. Heightened tensions between different security agencies were exposed by media reports with the violence of last weekend. Disconnect between the police and the GSS is either serving security interests or fragmenting them to the highest degree.

Proud to have sent letters and WhatsApp messages this week to MKs in the opposition encouraging them to vote against expelling Ayman Odeh from the Knesset. The legitimacy of his voice of criticism for Israel’s actions in Gaza warranted controversy. Arab MK Ayman Odeh announced long ago that he has no intention of running in the next Knesset elections. Regardless, invalidating his criticism sends a message to Arab society in Israel. A message discouraging Palestinian citizens of the State of Israel from voting. That affects Knesset representation and formation of the next government coalition. There’s an agenda.

This past week also included ongoing Haredi demonstrations in Yehud at a construction site. Protests, for reasons of religious sanctity, as Haredi’s claim the grounds may have been an ancient Jewish burial site. Legitimate to protest. Demonstrators invoked Pulsa diNura, a death wish ceremony for the contractor. If that seems dismissible, by ridicule, maybe protestors’ desecration of the grave of the contractor’s father speaks better of their value system.

We have a government with Ben Gvir as the minister overseeing the Israel Police. We have a government which needs Haredi coalition members and funds their needs at the expense of health and education services for society-at-large. We have a Minister of Finance, Smotrich, calling for occupation and Israeli settlement of Gaza, requiring ongoing war, while he denies funding for necessary tank refurbishment. His policy deprioritizes the safety of living hostages in Gaza and risks more IDF soldiers’ lives – his greater vision and its price.

Ending the war, bringing all hostages home now, and protecting IDF soldiers will save further loss of Gazan lives too. It’s not popular among Israelis to recognize loss of innocent Gazan lives. In fact, it’s avoidable for now. It is that much less popular to draw comparisons to the Holocaust. Yet, it is our moral obligation.

I am surrounded by five granddaughters, ages 3-1/2 to 10-1/2. Each one went through a unicorn stage. Unicorns on t-shirts, pajamas, hoods of terry cloth robes, and backpacks. A video clip with one unicorn is an immediate association with the innocence, love, tears, hugs, laughs and smiles of our granddaughters. Two unicorns – the same.

But the video clip fills each frame until you see an army of pink, white, and yellow – innocent unicorns. Then words in the next frame – over 16,000 children – that lead to frames with pictures of Gazan children dressed for holidays, dressed for school, playing, and then – dead.

Most Israeli mothers, fathers, teenagers, grandparents enjoy the luxury of denial, because they don’t know. If you tell them, in most cases you’d be met by disbelief, skepticism, a prefab alternative narrative, no interest in knowing more.

Unicorns. Synonymous with startup nation? Hedge funds – designed to insulate investment performance from market risk. But if hedge funds also speculate on market direction, I am worried about our future. Germany gives me hope.

Harriet Gimpel, July 5, 2025