CyberArk is one of the Israel firms that has entered Saudi Arabia [photo credit: CyberArk]
@Ab6has’s
investigation also revealed how since the Abraham Accords were signed
in September 2020 no one has been a bigger proponent of normalisation of
Israeli tech firms in Saudi Arabia than Erel Margalit, a former
sergeant major in the Israeli occupation forces who has been described
in the past both as the Knesset’s second richest MK and Israel's Donald Trump. Margalit’s Jerusalem Venture Partners is also one of the biggest investors in CyberArk.
Six weeks after the Accords were signed Margalit, who previously served
on the Knesset’s Security and Foreign Affairs Committee and headed the
Knesset’s Cybersecurity Task Force, led a delegation of 14 executives
and prominent businessmen to the UAE where he held up technological
cooperation as the key to peace and prosperity in the region. Speaking
to the Saudi news website Al Majalla Margalit said:
Saudi Arabia has unique and influential leverage in terms of the
region's trajectory, and what we want to tell the Saudis is that it's
time that we cooperate. Let us work together to transform the Kingdom's
oil-reliant economy into a knowledge economy.
In 2022 Margalit was invited to Bahrain as an official guest
of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), the Bahrain
government's economic arm. There he met the Bahraini Finance Minister
H.E. Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the Minister’s first official
meeting with a senior Israeli businessman since the Abraham Accords.
“The visit of Erel Margalit and JVP partners (Jerusalem Venture
Partners, the venture capital firm Margalit founded) to Bahrain is a
milestone in the relations between the business sectors in the two
countries,” said
Israel's ambassador to Bahrain Etan Na'eh at the time. The ambassador
added “Erel’s Startup City Model which was presented to senior Bahraini
officials complements our joint visions of building a tech corridor
between the two countries. Israel sees Bahrain as the gateway to the
Gulf.”
In 2022 JVP hosted the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Israel, where Margalit announced:
‘The next chapter in the region is Saudi Arabia. When we are doing
such great things in Jerusalem, with such a diverse community of
entrepreneurs working together, it reflects the region as a whole.’
The following year, after 16 weeks of tumultuous protests against
Netanhyahu’s attempted judicial overhaul had triggered a market
downturn, Margalit told the Times of Israel: ‘The economy and the high-tech industry is threatened by people who still want to attack the status of the judicial system.
Israel was the number one country that we — in Singapore or in
France, or in the US, or in Sweden, or in the UAE, or even in Saudi
Arabia — that we wanted to deal with as far as innovation is concerned.
What the government is doing now and where they are taking this is
unclear, they [investors] are telling us.
Just days before Hamas’ fateful attack on October 7 2023 in an
interview with Elaph, a London-based Saudi news website, Margalit laid
out his vision for a ‘Middle East Innovation Center’ based in the kingdom.
“Saudi Arabia has become an international regional hub,” he was quoted as saying.
I believe that any regional hub in the Gulf should be connected
to other hubs in New York, London and leading hubs in Asia. This
connection works for both sides. Interesting startups coming from Saudi
Arabia need to reach New York, and in return, interesting startups in
the United States, as well as in Israel, seek to enter the GCC
countries, via Saudi Arabia….Riyadh is a capital that should be paid
attention to.
Since the Gaza war began Margalit has continued to talk up the future
of Israeli - Saudi bilateral relations and repeatedly recommended Saudi
Arabia as one of the Arab states that could play a part in a post-Gaza
conflict alliance. At the Mind the Tech conference in New York on 4
March 2024 he spoke of a “New Deal” for Israel and the region that will
allow the high-tech sector to participate in a big way”
The New Deal can include a security alliance and an economic
alliance that will bring Israel into the bloc of countries in the region
that oppose Iran. The high-tech sector is the key to creating the next
phase of the Abraham Accords, with innovation and collaboration centers
throughout the region, around AI, Cyber FoodTech, AgTech, ClimaTech,
Healthcare IT, FinTech and many other areas, which will create new jobs
and prosperity for so many people in our region.
It is a tempting prospect - high-tech, led by Israel, paving the road
to Middle East peace and security - but one that seemingly leaves
little or no space for Palestine and the Palestinians.
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