Some Future Day

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Marc Beckman: [00:01:00] All right, I am so excited to have [00:02:00] Mr. Hillel Fuld live from Israel, joining me on some future day let's start easy, let's break into it. I'm curious, I, I, when did you get involved with technology? Were you, like, growing up an Apple computer guy? Like, what got you excited about technology when you were young?
Hillel Fuld: first of all, I'm not an engineer. I'm not like one of those guys that's like talking about how he had the Apple one and he was coding and I don't code. I actually was a late adopter. I remember, I must've been, I want to say like, teen. and I remember turning on a computer for the first time. I remember where I was standing, and I'm like, like, what the hell am I looking at?
Um, and so I, I would say that. From that moment, it was clear to me that I was going to work in tech, but again, you know, what we know now or we have now did not exist back then. I mean, the words blogger, influencer, or social media or iPhone, any of these, these things didn't exist. So, [00:03:00] you know, I definitely didn't have any kind of strategic plan of becoming who I am now, because again, it didn't exist.
But, uh, it was clear to me that I was going to work in tech in some capacity.
Marc Beckman: So, if you, if you forward then to, to this You know, your career has been pretty illustrious as it relates to, um, you know, having a position within the tech community. so what do you find interesting from a macro perspective about technology today or technology's influence on society today?
Hillel Fuld: Yeah, so I think that, you know, in the olden days, quote unquote, there was kind of like life and then there was tech, right? You know, just like there was any other field of, you know, whatever physics, I don't know, like, okay, there's life and there's, I'm a physics professor and it doesn't really interface with my life.
Um, and I think today life is tech. Tech is life. I mean, who doesn't, you know, and I give lectures and I say, you know, who here is into tech? And like, some people raise their hand, some people don't raise their hand. And I'm like. Who has a smartphone in their pocket? And then everyone has, you know, so like we, we're all obviously using tech.
Some are using deeper tech than others, but you [00:04:00] know, technology has basically penetrated all aspects of our lives. I have
Marc Beckman: But it's become, there are certain levels of philosophy now that we're running into with technology. Like, I know right now a lot of the guys in the AI community are balancing, uh, the difference between effective accelerationism with effective altruism. Yak, have you heard of this yet?
Hillel Fuld: not. Please educate me.
Marc Beckman: Yeah. So it's kind of interesting.
Like the concept of EAC is this one camp where you get people like Marc Andreessen and, and that cohort where they're saying, we need to have no restraints and no regulation. If we can accelerate the advancements from technology, then as a society, we can save ourselves effectively. AI, if it's untethered, will allow for advancements in healthcare and medicine, it will make the society more profitable and prosperous and, [00:05:00] and so on.
Whereas the concept of effective altruism or EA is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's put the brakes on this. Let's get some safety mechanisms in place and, and make sure we don't destroy the world. So it's funny how, you know, when we were younger, technology was as simple as. Wow, the lights are on and maybe I could send a friend an email and do a little research.
And now this heavy, lofty philosophy of EAC versus EA is in play. So I know this is, uh, you know, just an initial thought for you, a quick thought, but what's your philosophy? Do you think technology can, can save the world?
Hillel Fuld: So I think that, uh, you know, we have to look at patterns. I think it's very important to look at patterns and human behavior. And I think we could see, you know, basically every single time any new invention, innovation, technology was invented, the people in the world freaked out. All the way back to like the tractor, [00:06:00] right?
Think about farmers are like, Oh my God, the tractor, it's gonna, I'm gonna be unemployed, right? And press and the internet and social media and the mobile phone. I mean, I'm sure you remember, I know I remember when people would say. I don't want people to be able to, you know, access me at all times. Why would I want a phone in my pocket?
That's crazy. Or a camera on a phone? Who the heck would use a camera on a phone? These things like weren't that long ago. And so every time a new technology comes out, we freak out. Um, but what ends up happening is that it's a net positive. What ends up happening is that, yes, some people Uh, you know, are affected negatively in the short term, farmers, uh, the, you know, the, the publishers, pre press, uh, et cetera, et cetera, but in the long term, it, it enhances our lives, it enhances society, and if I may be a little bit I don't know, blunt.
I think that if, you know, if a person's scared that AI is going to replace them and they'll be out of a job, then perhaps it's worth considering whether they're really maximizing their intellectual, [00:07:00] potential if a computer can replace them. Maybe if your job is data entry and you're just sitting at a computer at a keyboard hitting keys all day long.
Maybe you should be out of a job. Maybe you should try to figure out how to activate your brain in a more significant way and do something that a computer can't replace. So I'm, I'm in the Marc Andreessen camp for sure. Uh, I think technology will enhance our lives in every way with, with the asterisk and with the caveat that in the short term, You know, it's going to get a little scary, whether it's, you know, Elon Musk's hyper, what's it called?
Uh, Neuralink? Neuralink, yeah. I mean, like everyone around me is like, oh my God, a chip in your brain. I'm like, bring it on, baby. You know, so
Marc Beckman: already have hardware in our heads, though, right? It's, it's kind of an interesting point, Alel. If you think about it, like, some people will use, um, devices that are implanted into their heads to help them with hearing, right? We already use technology in the human body, but people are still fearful.
Hillel Fuld: right. Yeah, I mean, it's just, I have this debate with a lot of my friends and even family members. They're like, how could you put [00:08:00] a chip in your brain? I'm like, I don't understand. Like, I go to school, my kids go to school to acquire knowledge. Don't you think that if I could get to that point of having that knowledge, You know, without spending years unnecessarily and, and, you know, learning things that are completely irrelevant to my life and I could get there faster and I could know everything I need to know, why on earth wouldn't I do that?
Of course with, I'm not going to, you know, we need to make sure that it's safe, obviously, but once it is, you know, tested and determined that it is safe, I don't even understand a person's perspective when they say they wouldn't do it. Of course you should do it. Why would I not want to do it? I don't get it.
Marc Beckman: And I would imagine it would give certain people that are in the have camp an advantage, right? If I have access to that technology or even that chip in my brain and it gives me immediate access to knowledge and now, now knowledge is power, I could be sitting in a boardroom, I could be working on a farm, I could be working in outer space, but I have [00:09:00] access to immediate knowledge that can change and impact the environment around me.
Um, maybe some people in the beginning won't be able to access. That level of technology because of cost restraints and whatnot. So perhaps there could even be, I know we're getting a little sci fi here, but perhaps there could even be, a balance between the haves and have nots, where you see a greater divide between the people that are willing to embrace the technology and move essentially like a smart, uh, lens, right, which we'll have shortly, um, like with mixed reality and spatial computing into your brain.
Hillel Fuld: I mean, I do think that, you know, now you're entering black mirror, uh, you know, um, but yeah, no, I think, I think it's a very interesting, I think it's a very interesting discussion. And I think that we are going to see a divide. I definitely do. I think it's going to be a, I think it's going to be, um, divide basically, um, based on age, right?
The older generation is going to be like, oh my God. Uh, but, and I think that the younger generation is going to embrace it. And by the way, like, again, we have to understand that like all the things that we use today, literally [00:10:00] all the technologies that we use today. Not that long ago people were saying they would never use right social media like oh my god I'm gonna upload what about privacy like shut up a privacy, dude What do you you don't want someone to know something that don't upload it and if you do then whatever, you know, like And again, the mobile phone and all of it, we all said like, Oh my God.
And then we all use it today. So I think everyone's just to calm down. I think, uh, embrace what you want, use whatever technology you want, but to ignore it or to not embrace it, I think we'll, you'll, you'll be left behind.
Marc Beckman: So it's interesting because a lot of the devices you're talking about create connectivity, right? We're talking about Neuralink and mobile phones and cloud computing and social media and you would think that the connectivity would have a positive impact on perhaps democracies, on spreading the truth, on advancing humankind.
but I'm not sure that that's happening entirely these days.
Hillel Fuld: Uh, yeah, but that's, I [00:11:00] think that that's perhaps. taking a tool or a resource, um, and kind of blaming that resource versus the way it's being used by people. I think anything in life, I mean, literally anything in life can be used for good and can be abused, right? It depends how you use it. And so, you know, theoretically speaking, you're right.
Something that creates more connectivity should create more unity, should create more positive sentiment versus this distribution of fake news and bullying and all the other problems. But human beings, we tend to ruin things, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, it's just, it's not the technology's fault.
It's human beings fault. And so, you know, I try on a personal level to use it for good, obviously, but it depends on the person.
Marc Beckman: Yeah, I really appreciate what you're saying, Hillel, because, you know, the AI idea of, you know, artificial intelligence killing off mankind, AGI being dangerous, etc. I'm really in the camp of, it's up to the people. If we're going to abuse the technology behind a nuclear weapon, if we're going to abuse the technology behind AGI, it's us, humanity, that's the [00:12:00] danger.
It's not the device and it's not the software. It's the people.
Hillel Fuld: And you know, it's an interesting, uh, it's an interesting discussion when it comes to autonomous transportation. Um, because in that case, the very appeal. of Autonomous Cars is the fact that it's not humans driving, right? People are like, Oh my God, no driver. That's so scary. Dude, like even right now, even right now, autonomous cars are hundreds, like hundreds of percentages safer than human drivers.
I mean, all accidents are human error. So in that case, the technology is actually enabling us to kind of get away from human error and, you know, save lives basically in a very real way. So, you know, that to me, you know, people say to me like, Oh, you know, I'm not gonna You know, I'm too scared. That's crazy.
I mean, come on, like, why would you want to be in a weapon on four wheels that could drive a hundred miles an hour and be dependent on the fact that you, you know, you're, you don't get distracted for a second. I mean, it's crazy. So, you know, to me, autonomous vehicles and [00:13:00] just transportation in general is going to be, you know, one of the most exciting, uh, I'd say technological advancements in my lifetime.
Marc Beckman: Yeah, I understand, like, you had mentioned Elon Musk a little while ago, and I understand that, um, his company Tesla is actually capturing more data points, that are being used for artificial intelligence purposes right now than any other, EV or, or autonomous vehicle, and it's really going to be a game changer on that level.
I don't know if, if you want to, like, really think far out for a second, but I'm curious, like, where your mind would go. as to like the impact of artificial intelligence on society, you know, for our children, like all the way out, let's think 10 years out from now, like, how do you think AI will change the world?
Other than the obvious, everybody says like jobs are going to change and the disruption of jobs. Like, what do you see across different business sectors, maybe driving or ecology, perhaps irrigation, these types of effective
Hillel Fuld: just, it's just, if I [00:14:00] had to sum up. Uh, the impact of AI on all sectors, I would say it's optimization. That's what, that's what it's about. It's optimization, right? In other words, instead of me having to do step one, two, three, and four in order to get to five, I'll just jump straight to five because AI took care of one, two, and three and four, right?
It's, it's true across all, even today. I mean, even with AI today, generative AI, obviously, I mean, chat GPT, right? Everyone, you know, it went crazy, but if you think about it. What is it basically? It's optimizing for our time, in this case, in terms of generating content. but I think that that's what AI does and will continue to do.
It will optimize our, our lives, our lifestyle, our work, you know, our, our workflow and everything about us. You know, whether it's, again, preparing food to transportation, to, you know, school, to everything. Everything's going to be optimized. And to me, that's, that's a good thing.
Marc Beckman: Right? Accelerate.
Hillel Fuld: take it. I didn't
Marc Beckman: So Hillel, obviously I feel a connection with you because you're a New Yorker originally. I know you moved out of New [00:15:00] York City as a teen, but, um, another common thread we have is that we're both Jewish and, um, You know, notwithstanding the small Jewish population of the world, I think it's at, like people say, it's at about 0.
2 percent of the world's population, Jews have done some incredible things in the world and, I was looking recently at some of your work with regards to, um, new We've been talking a lot about the different types of companies and their impact on society. And then I thought, like, what I want to do is share some old, older Jews and older Jewish accomplishments and then segue into highlight some of the accomplishments that, that you're familiar with.
So, it's kind of fun. I listed a bunch of famous Jews um, that, kind of, come into our tech space. So, Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk, who created the polio vaccine. Galileo was a Jew. It's argued a little bit, but people say that, right? I didn't know that. Galileo was a Jew. [00:16:00] Um, Selman Selman Waksman discovered, um, the concept of antibiotics.
I don't know if you're aware of that. That's a pretty big accomplishment that we gave to the world. Gabriel Lippmann discovered color photography. I wasn't aware of that. Did you know that? Color photography? Um, obviously, Sigmund Freud, the father of psychotherapy. Julius Mayer discovered the law of thermodynamics.
I didn't know that. Um, Isaac Singer, so, you know, we'll discount the sewing machine, but think, what about a, that, what a grand breakthrough at a mass level to have a sewing machine as part of, you know, society, and then, of course, that takes me to Levi Strauss, the iconic denim manufacturer. Um, other contributions that we provided were Everybody Loves the Weekend.
Right? So, uh, according to Exodus 28, we created the weekend, technically, right? That's a pretty good accomplishment. Um, and then I could go out, there's a list of, you know, things like crop rotation, [00:17:00] public schools, the census, animal rights, uh, the concept of asylum and equality under the law. It goes on and on.
Um, but let's fast forward. Like, I'm having some fun with you here today. Let's fast forward to some of the modern Israeli, um, inventions that people might not know about. Um, Something that I think is, is super compelling is Waze.
Hillel Fuld: Yeah, Waze is like one of the more, you know, famous, uh, Israeli inventions that everybody knows, but there are so many, there are so many that people just don't know are Israeli. But just one word about Waze, you know, we, we use it today and we, and we love it and it's great and it brings us real value to our life.
But if you think about the early days, I mean, to map out the world and to crowdsource maps, I mean, that was a crazy concept and many VCs like kicked them out of their office, right? Um, and you know, it was, it was a real, it was a dream. I mean, they, they needed people to actually go out and map out roads.
So, you know, right now we look at the kind of the end result, but think about what had [00:18:00] to go into it. It's pretty wild if you think about it, but you know, Israeli inventions. I mean, anything from cherry tomatoes to drip irrigation to the USB thumb drive, you know, and the list just goes on and on. I mean, uh, uh, dual lenses on, on cameras or our phones now, that's an Israeli invention.
Uh, you know, it just, the list is extremely, extremely long and it's across. All sectors, whether it's breakthrough cancer treatments and cancer cures, whether it's, you know, hardware, whether it's software that we all use, like, I don't know, Monday. com, or Fiverr, or Lemonade, or Vitrix, I mean, the list is endless, basically.
Marc Beckman: So, so let's, let's back up a little bit. You mentioned, uh, Simcha Blass's company surrounding drip irrigation. Um, it seems like that's really changed agriculture. What, what's, what's that company about?
Hillel Fuld: Oh, I don't, I, I, I cannot tell you more information other than I was in the Technion a couple of months ago, and he's a, he's a graduate of the Technion, so they were talking to me about it, but I don't know very much about the company, [00:19:00] but it 100 percent revolutionized agriculture. I mean, The amount, just think about the amount of water it saves to have drip irrigation, you know, uh, to be able to water plants without water just basically being wasted.
It's a, it's an absolute game changer. I mean, it affects all of our lives indirectly, but it affects all of us.
Marc Beckman: There's another company, I guess, that, that ties to water too. That's an Israeli, um, invention, um, Watergen, right? Is it WaterGen? It makes, uh, yeah. What, so you want to talk a little bit? I didn't understand. Like, so, so it makes water out of thin air?
Hillel Fuld: yeah, it's, it's wild. I mean, I'll tell you my personal story with them. Very funny story, actually. Um, you know, after technology and Judaism, my biggest passion is cars. I love cars. And, um, you know, I don't know if you know this, but cars have like 100 percent taxes in Israel. So you, you know, you're paying double what you pay in the States, basically.
And so, you know, when I see a, you know, a supercar or a hypercar or whatever on the streets of Tel Aviv, it's like, whoa. One day [00:20:00] I saw a Rolls Royce Phantom. Driving in Tel Aviv and I'm like, that is like, that's millions and millions of Sheka, like who the heck? So I took a picture of it and I posted it.
Within seconds, I get a message from someone saying, that's my boss's car. I said, who's your boss? And what, what do you do? And it's the chairman of WaterGen. And then I said, oh, you work at WaterGen. I heard about the company. I had written about them previously. So I went into the office. Listen, I could tell you this.
It's gonna sound like science fiction, but they literally have, uh, water coolers, like you would press, you know, to, Fill up a cup, but without water feeding into it. Just air. It just takes from the air. Don't ask me how they do it. I couldn't possibly explain it to you, but literally they have machines that are sometimes, you know, they, from smaller machines to massive machines that they bring to remote villages in Africa to enable them to have water from the air.
I mean, I know it sounds like water fiction, it's a science fiction, but check out watergen. com. It's unbelievable, truly
Marc Beckman: So I actually, when you talk about Africa, it's interesting. I actually met the founder, again, it's WaterConnected. The [00:21:00] founder, um, I think if I believe, if I say it correctly, I think her name is Sivan Yaari of Innovation Africa. She met with me in New York City a while ago. And again, I don't think, People, uh, really understand the extent of, um, you know, Israeli innovation impacting the entire planet.
Do you want to talk a little bit about Savan's, uh, company?
Hillel Fuld: Sivan's amazing, by the way. My, my daughter for her bat mitzvah, she had a, she had a, She had done a, no it wasn't for her bat mitzvah, sorry. My daughter had done a project, I think, in school, uh, where they had to choose a hero and feature them and talk about it. So she did it on Sivan Yari and Sivan's a good friend of mine.
So I actually made sure that they met my daughter and Sivan. Uh, she is, she is a phenomenon. Honestly, she is a, she's a just a tremendous, tremendous human being. Um, you know, she looked at Africa like the rest of us look at Africa and we say like, Okay, you know, whatever, you know, we have solar panels on our roofs, we have, obviously, running water, we have everything we need, they don't have running water in Africa, they don't even, they don't have electricity, they don't have any [00:22:00] of this, and the rest of us were like, okay, shrug our shoulders, we're like, okay, you know, whatever.
but, she wouldn't have any of that. And so she's like, I got to do something about this. And so she built Innovation Africa, which is an unbelievable organization. Uh, in which they basically create infrastructure in these villages in Africa to pump. Uh, Clean Running Water, something that many of these kids in these villages have never seen before.
And it's, uh, there's a video on YouTube that you watch and it's just so beautiful because these African kids are playing with running water and they're thanking their brothers and sisters from Israel. And it's like, unbelievable to think that in 2023, had it not been for Sivan Yaari Yari, These villages would not have running water.
It's wild.
Marc Beckman: Yeah, when I met with her originally, we were introduced actually, you might know, uh, the Nakash family, Shaul Nakash,
Hillel Fuld: Shaul's my boy. I love Shaul. He's
Marc Beckman: So Shaul was a client of mine with Jordache for many, many years. I love Shaul too. Big shout out for Shaul on this episode. Um, so I know that Shaul was on Sivan's board [00:23:00] and, um, I said, like, when I, when I first learned about it, I said, like, is this like a governmental backed, like, goodwill company?
And Sivan thought I was, like, cuckoo to even say that. Like, it really came from her vision and her heart, and she, like, rolls up her sleeves and, and, you know, gets into these remote villages in Africa and makes sure that they have clean running water, potable water.
Hillel Fuld: It's wild.
Marc Beckman: It's incredible. I think the, um, innovation on the, um, healthcare side, uh, is really interesting too, like I actually ran into a colleague of mine, true story.
I ran into a colleague of mine, um, at NYU actually, who said that his father. Um, was able to access Israeli technology. His father had a massive stroke and he said if he was living here in the United States, he would not have been able to access this technology. He would have died. And in fact, because of the regulations here in New York, but because he was overseas in Europe, he was able to access [00:24:00] this.
Unique new innovation, um, that allowed for his father to not only live, but to thrive where he's, he's okay now. so there's some interesting stuff that's going on. Like, for example, uh, professor, I might, excuse me if I, if I butcher his name a little bit. Professor Yaakov Namias created this regenerative, regenerative heart tissue.
through this new Israeli stem cell tech. I mean, the advancements to be able to study a, you know, a live miniature heart is huge for us. Like, why don't we hear more about this on a global scale?
Hillel Fuld: That's because I don't do a good job, obviously. I'm just kidding. Uh, I don't know. I don't know. The truth is, I don't, I mean, I, I, I'm surprised you don't hear about it. I mean, I think, I feel like Israeli tech does get Uh, you know, a lot of hype, you know, and I, I think that, you know, that specific invention I read a ton about, but, um, you know, I mean, I, I think that, as, as a generalization, uh, I think Israel is much stronger at tech [00:25:00] and innovation than it is at PR and marketing.
Marc Beckman: Yeah.
Hillel Fuld: say that as the understatement of the century.
Marc Beckman: We had another guest. You might know, um, a guy named Robert Scoble out of California. Who mentioned that Israel is probably number three right now with regards to innovation and AI just behind the United States and China. Why do you think Israel is, is such a, you know, flourishing state for innovation and technology?
Hillel Fuld: So first of all, another shout out to Scoble. He's my boy for a very long time. Very good friend. Um, I think that I disagree with him, actually. I don't think that we're number three. I think it depends how you measure it. Obviously, it depends what your metrics are. But first of all, per capita, we're by far number one.
Um, but I'm not sure that I agree that we're number three, uh, maybe in absolute numbers, I guess we're number three, but I think in terms of innovation and creativity and Israel's leading the way, um, you know, why it is, how it is, how it came to be that Israel is this technology. You know, leader. Um, there's a lot of literature on that, obviously, the book [00:26:00] Startup Nation and many others.
I think it's a combination of many different components. I think it's a cultural component of, you know, just kind of the Jewish people and their need and our need to survive and flourish under pressure, which is something we always did as a nation. I think it's, uh, political or governmental. The government plays a very active role in, uh, encouraging innovation in Israel.
Um, I think it's the military that plays a massive role in terms of. You know, teaching, uh, you know, soldiers and young, young adults about innovation and out of the box thinking, um, you know, I, I think it's, I think it's many different things. Um, but I think it all comes down to the mindset of an Israeli entrepreneur that, you know, I feel like if you tell most entrepreneurs in most ecosystems in the world that what they want to build is impossible.
You know, I, I feel like most normal people would be like, okay, so let's move on to the next thing. I tell an Israeli entrepreneur that what he wants to build is impossible. He says, hold my beer. Two minutes later, he builds it. Right. Uh, and that's true for, you know, [00:27:00] there's, I mean, take the Iron Dome. Like everyone's talking about the Iron Dome, knocking rockets out of the air, detonating rockets mid flight.
Like this stuff is like science fiction. I mean, we, we know that it works now with incredible precision. But I don't know if we've ever thought about how deep that technology has to be. And I can tell you that Daniel Gold, who's a friend of mine who invented the Iron Dome, told me that he, when he had this idea, he went to the military for funding.
He went to the government for funding. He went to the U. S. government. No one believed it was possible. No one. And he built it. And so that's, I think, a good case study of how Israeli entrepreneurs think. Don't tell me something's impossible because I'm going to do it.
Marc Beckman: That's pretty cool. I've heard interviews of, um, Netanyahu talking about the fact that he like really played a role in unlocking the entrepreneurial spirit, uh, to drive growth in the tech sector for the, you know, for the Israelis. you know, feeling very much like the generation before us would not have been able to get that type of innovation.
Um, opportunity because there was, you know, more of [00:28:00] like a, let's say like a socialist type of government structured from, you know, the early days of Israel. And Netanyahu, uh, really in, in one interview took a lot of credit for unlocking this Israeli tech innovation spirit.
Hillel Fuld: Can I say no comment? Nah, you know, I'm not, I don't, I don't think, I don't think anyone really believes that Netanyahu's to credit for this. I mean, I think he's maybe taking it one step forward and really. Uh, jumped into AI and built a relationship with Elon Musk. And I think it's great, but I don't, I don't think he thinks or anyone thinks that he deserves a credit for Israeli innovation.
You know, he's another, another, another, uh, link in the chain. I feel like, you know, it's, this has been, I mean, Israel, Israel as a state is the world's best startup. I mean, this, this country makes no sense, like no sense whatsoever, like from, from literally, by the way, today, today in 1947, or sorry, 1948, I guess.
1947
actually. Today was the partition plan where the UN gave the Arabs a state and the Jews a state. Obviously the Jews agreed and the [00:29:00] Arabs, uh, declined and rejected and then attacked Israel and lost. But if you think about it, like, there's not a military strategist in the world who can explain to you how this little, tiny little country fighting all these massive armies around us with basically our sticks and our stones.
One, the War of Independence, the Six Day War, I mean, these are like miracles. And so, you know, Israel as a state, I believe is the best startup in history. And so I feel like it's just ingrained in our DNA as a, as a nation to, to innovate and to make the world a better place,
Marc Beckman: So, since you mentioned the Partition Plan, um, I just want to let, for, for, you know, people listening or, or watching the show, I just want to, um, talk to that for a second. So, we're recording this on November 29th. In 1947, the United Nations generally, General Assembly voted 33 to 13 in favor of the Partition Plan.
it was a proposal by the UN which recommended a partition, [00:30:00] at the end of the British mandate and as you mentioned, Ilel, um, it was rejected, by the Arabs, but effectively the idea was to create an independent Arab and an independent Jewish state, and then a special international regime for the city of Jerusalem, but that was, that was rejected and it was today, the anniversary of that is today.
Hillel Fuld: coincidentally, right? It's kind of crazy,
Marc Beckman: it is. It really is. It's, it's interesting. going back, you mentioned, um, just I want to talk about the Iron Dome for one second and then we'll, we'll, we'll pop back over to where we are now. So like, the Iron, see, am I right in understanding that the Iron Dome technology is actually evolving again to include, include lasers now?
Did I read
Hillel Fuld: not, it's not the Iron Dome. It's the next product. It's not, it's not the Iron Dome. It's a new product that basically, the reason that it's much more appealing than the Iron Dome is because each Iron Dome missile is Insanely expensive, right? And so if [00:31:00] you think about it, you know, Hamas has fired tens of thousands of rockets since this war began.
Each time we detonate those rockets, it's costing us an obscene amount of money. These lasers obviously are significantly more affordable. I don't know. I got to be honest. I don't know very much about it. I I know that when I met with Daniel Gold and his team in the IDF, they were very, very excited about it.
But I still have to do some research. I haven't had the time. The war broke out, and I'm just like 100 percent occupied with that. Uh, but, but from what I hear, it is an absolute technological breakthrough.
Marc Beckman: Do you feel like, you know, when, when you talk about the war and the situation right now, um, again, we, we keep, Elon Musk keeps popping up into our conversation today and I know that he was in Israel this week. he offered some solutions. He offered like a pathway with three ideas. they included killing Hamas, killing off Hamas, re-educating the next generation of, um, Palestinians, and then giving them prosperity [00:32:00] in many ways similar to what we saw with the United States in World War II, in places like Japan and Germany.
I'm curious, um, what you think about that approach.
Hillel Fuld: Um, due respect, all right? I love Elon Musk. I think he's brilliant. Um, but I think that that plan is Extremely naive, extremely naive, because you can't compare radical Islam to any other culture or ideology. Radical Islam is so ingrained, you can, you can't, you can try to re educate. You can't, prosperity won't help.
I mean, you know, let's just get personal here. My brother's murderer was a Palestinian kid who was leading a very affluent life. He was missing nothing in his life. And so that concept of, Oh, you know, we're oppressing them. And that's why, that's why there's so much terror. If only we wouldn't occupy them, they would love us.
Come on, come on. Really? Like are we past that narrative already? Like 1929, there was no state, there was no occupation and Arabs were massacring Jews in Hebron. Like, come on with that already, you know? So I don't think, I think [00:33:00] Elon Musk is making a mistake that, that. That I believe is very widespread in Western society today, which is taking our values in Western civilization and thinking we can apply them to radical Islam, but we can't because they don't share those values, our core values.
For example, if I treat you with dignity and respect, you're going to treat me with dignity and respect. That is something that we believe. In our bones, we, it's our core, they don't, that's not something that they agree with. They meaning radical Islam, you could treat them with respect. You can go and, you know, initiate all kinds of programs for the advancement of the Palestinians and they're going to murder you just like they'll murder me.
So, you know, this whole, let's give them prosperity and they're going to stop hating us. It's a little bit naive. You know, re educating, again, you can't get rid of an ideology. Yes, the first part of his, of his plan, killing off Hamas, great, but no one kids themselves to think that once we get rid of Hamas at a next, You know, the next ideologies, you know, or the next representation of that ideology is not going to pop up.
It will. I mean, there are many [00:34:00] other, even now, right? We talk about, you know, the PA, the Palestinian Authority. And the world, like, it's, again, it's ridiculous and it's laughable and it's incredibly inaccurate. To differentiate between the Palestinian Authority, the moderate Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
Oh, they want peace. Give me a break. Abbas, the guy's been, he had won election 20 years ago. He's his eighth, he's his eighth, uh, what's it called? You know, as, as president of the, of the PA. The guy's, he wrote his PhD on a, on the, uh, what's it called? Holocaust
Marc Beckman: the Holocaust.
Hillel Fuld: Uh, denier, he is a Holocaust denier and, you know, the guy's a full blown terrorist.
I mean, who created the PLO? Yasser Arafat. The guy was a terrorist. Like, we gotta stop with this fake, like, oh, there's Hamas and then there's the Palestinian Authority. It's all the same. It's Islamic Jihad. It's Hezbollah. It's ISIS. It's all the same. It's radical Islam. We all give, we give them different names, but it's the same garbage.
Um, and so I don't think that you can. Uh, re educate, you know, somebody that has that [00:35:00] ideology so ingrained in them, and it's something they believe in so deeply. Imagine you were trying to convince me, or trying to re educate me, Hillel Fuld that murder is okay. Y you could never do that, because in
Marc Beckman: I, I, the acts of October 7th, I'm sorry to interrupt, but like, this is worse than murder. I mean, you're talking about a situation as you're very well aware, right? I, I don't want to say this. I'll let you go off on it, but you know, we're talking about murder and rape. We're talking about, you know, the, the violence that we haven't seen since medieval times where people were, were decapitated and, you know, babies literally today as we're speaking,
Hillel Fuld: not, I don't want to hear about, I don't want to talk about atrocities, man. I don't want to, it triggers the hell out of me when we talk about this stuff. I'm staying far away from it. All I'll say is as follows. It's very simple, right? October 7th happened, and from my perspective, as someone who's a cup half full kind of guy, I said to myself, You know what?
If I could even find a little optimism here, at least the world will finally see What we've known for [00:36:00] decades, at least the world will finally understand the savage nature of radical Islam, at least the world will finally stand with us. And here we are. So, you know what, I don't expect anything from Hamas and radical Islamic terrorist organizations, but I do expect from the West, and the West has been the biggest disappointment of this war.
The fact that the West does not unequivocally, and I mean the West as one civilization, the fact that the West does not stand unequivocally with Israel is a stain on the West's history, and will go down in history as one of the biggest betrayals of Western civilization. Since the Holocaust, as far as I'm concerned, maybe even more.
So, you know, that to me is just hard to even grasp that the West, that anyone, anyone in the West doesn't stand with Israel at this point. It's mind boggling.
Marc Beckman: Yeah, unfortunately, what we saw the West behave that way, including the United States during World War II, when our president turned away boats of, um, Jews coming to flee from, you know, the Holocaust in Europe, um, but, you [00:37:00] know, obviously there's like this This like sickness, there's like this lack of moral clarity and it's permeating the West's government, the universities, I mean, I saw, um, you know, for, for a while now, I said, like, why aren't all these, um, women activists standing up and, and supporting, Israeli women?
They, they had nothing to say at all, until I think now Sheryl Sandberg is finally standing up and saying something, but it took more than a month to, to, for anyone saying, nobody's saying anything. No leaders, nobody in government. There's just such a blatant lack of moral clarity as, as it, you know, relates to this, this situation, LL.
Hillel Fuld: Yeah, I actually think Sheryl Sandberg was one of the only, uh, you know, women who did speak up. But, uh, but I agree with you a hundred percent. I think that the, the double standard, uh, hypocrisy surrounding the world's treatment of Israel and the Jews. It is staggering. It is hard to believe, [00:38:00] hard to digest, but it's reality.
It's always been reality. Uh, I don't know if you know this, but the UN passed a resolution yesterday to Uh, for Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria, like you can't make this stuff up. I mean, the UN makes Iran the head of their human rights council. Like the world has lost complete, there's no moral compass.
That's it. They've lost it completely. Um, and so, you know, it's on the one hand, it's shocking and appalling and disgusting that these feminist organizations have not spoken up. On the other hand, it's, it's a surprise to no one. It doesn't surprise me anymore. I've, I've, I've lost all. You know, hope that the world will view Israel at the same standard that it views the rest of the world, that just will never happen.
Marc Beckman: Yeah. I wonder like if it's this, you know, if there's like a certain level of lack of education or if it's just straight. Anti Semitism, like, you know, you look at, like, the climate change movement, for example, and, um, you know, their, their poster child, [00:39:00] Greta Thunberg, was recently in Sweden, I think less than a week ago, you know, what, what does the climate change movement have to do with, you know, she was carrying a Palestinian flag and, and shouting out against the, the Jewish people, like, what does that have to do with climate change?
Hillel Fuld: What, you don't know that the Zionists are responsible for climate change?
Marc Beckman: I actually, all kidding aside, it's my understanding that Israel is one of the most climate change friendly states on the planet.
Hillel Fuld: Yeah. I mean, again, you're at, here's the problem with your question. Your premise is that, uh, it has to make sense. It's like, how could she, a person who's in climate change, you know, be siding with the Palestinians? Where's the logic in that? Forget logic, man. Forget logic. Like, you got to take that out of your head.
You got to stop saying, You know, and I'm not saying this to you, I'm saying this to anyone who has expectations from the West. We have to stop thinking and kidding ourselves that the standard that the West applies to the rest of the world is the standard they're going to apply to the Jews. It's never been that way, it's not that way now, and it never [00:40:00] will be that way.
It's pure, old fashioned anti Semitism, Jew hatred, the oldest hatred in the world. It takes on a new face in every generation, and in today's generation it's called anti Zionism. It's all the same. Any excuse to hate the Jews, any excuse to scapegoat the Jews. And she's just another one in history that's gonna go down as just a full blown Jew hater who just found some excuse to latch on to to hate the Jews.
Marc Beckman: Yeah. I think, um, it's interesting just to connect back, what's happening in the West. Um, and when you talk about like academics, like our universities, you're seeing uprisings on campuses, you know, throughout not just the United States, but throughout the world too. do you think there's a way to reach that next generation?
Let's say, you know, Gen Z effectively and, and show them, um, you know, the truth.
Hillel Fuld: It's a complicated question, man. I'm telling you, like, I You know, I, I, I'm an optimistic guy, right? So I always want to believe there's hope, but when I see that there's a trend on Tik Tok of, of [00:41:00] American youth praising Bin Laden, it's very hard for me to be hopeful if I'm being totally honest. Uh, these people are ideologically completely lost.
They just are completely gone off the deep end. Um, and there are no more. You know, things that are out of bounds. It's, it's anything goes, right? You could, I mean, literally anything, right? It's on campuses. It's, it's on TikTok. It's, you know, in parliaments yesterday, the city council of Oakland, did you see this thing?
Like they literally could not denounce Hamas. Like it's, it's, it's gotten so crazy and so immoral. Uh, that I don't know. I don't know the answer to your question. I don't know if those Gen Zers can actually be, uh, re-educated or can actually see the truth and see the light because they are so far gone, uh, and it's not going to get any better, right?
We know what's going on on campuses, um, and, you know, if this is our next generation, then honestly, I'm pretty worried about Jew outside of Israel.
Marc Beckman: It's like this, um, global anti Semitic moment happened with such a [00:42:00] rapid pace. Like, I always felt as a New Yorker that there was anti Semitism, but never did I imagine that in our lifetime, We would see it just spread across every major city on the planet from, you know, Paris and London to San Francisco, New York City.
And, you know, in all institutions from media to government and across the board. Hillel, do you think that we'll be able to, to turn, turn it around? I mean, we were able to do so after World War II.
Hillel Fuld: We were able to do so after World War II by denazifying Germany. That was a very, uh, you know, um, concentrated effort. Um, I don't think that it's possible to put. The genie back in the bottle or the cat back in the bag or whatever the expression is. Um, you know, I think we can, um, we can maybe come up with very targeted solutions to deal with specific issues.
But do I think that there's any way to reverse the antisemitism that we're seeing? On the contrary, I think it's terrifying that in Germany, in the 40s, it [00:43:00] took years. Years of the dangerous rhetoric to transition into full blown extermination of Jews. Years. It took here one month. One month since October 7th, and you saw Jews being beaten to death in the streets of Los Angeles.
I mean, one month. So, logic dictates that this is moving very fast, which means that it's going to continue to move very fast, and I don't want to think What the world will look like in one month or two months or three months or six months from now when it comes to, you know, anti Semitism and Jew hatred.
I'm genuinely terrified for my brothers and sisters around the world. I really am.
Marc Beckman: I know, I know you are, as am I. Um, so is there anyone that you could point to, um, that would be a beacon of light, anyone that you think is doing things the right way, or any entity that you can, highlight to, to show perhaps this is the way we should be doing it on a global scale?
Hillel Fuld: mean, the answer to that question is I think the state of Israel as a whole, right? I think that, you know, whether it's the military that goes to extraordinary [00:44:00] lengths and one might say maybe even too far when it comes to, uh, you know, uh, avoiding and preventing civilian deaths, you know, dropping, you know, Pamphlets and SMSing people and telling them we're about to attack means that we get rid of the element of surprise, which is not a very good war strategy, but we do it because we don't want innocents to die, and yet the world still says that we've killed 10, 000 kids or whatever stupid number they make up from Hamas's propaganda machine, so what are we even doing, right?
We're getting rid, we're getting rid of our element of surprise and deterrence in order to accomplish something that we're not accomplishing anyway, um, and so I think that the State of Israel is a beacon of light, you know, again, with its military, With its technology, with its healthcare, across the board, I think Israel is a, is a, is a bright light.
You know, we say we're a light unto the nations. I really believe that to be the case. I feel like, you know, what we're doing to make the world a better place, whether it's every time there's a natural disaster, we're first on the scene in terms of rescue, rescue units, you know, and like I said before, cancer treatments, Israel is.
Really, to [00:45:00] me, a beacon of light in this very, very dark world. Um, but you know, you could take endless, thousands of startups in Israel as an example of a beacon of light. You know, there's just so many. Um, but, you know,
Marc Beckman: You know, you, you spoke
Hillel Fuld: is getting dark.
Marc Beckman: You highlighted the, um, I think they're called knock bombs, right? Where, where, um, Israel gives advanced notice to certain buildings, uh, that they're going to be, um, bombed so that they can avoid civilian casualties. And, um, you know, it's clear that. The Israelis, um, as a military have gone out of their way to avoid civilian casualties more so than any country I think in the history of, of war.
beyond what you're talking about, they've also provided, um, open free corridors for, for, um, Palestinian civilians to move south away from the attacks. Um, but I know that when When that happened, that was also, um, created a [00:46:00] situation where I believe the Hamas were, were shooting at the civilians trying to, to leave that area.
Hamas, on the flip side, is attacking Israeli. Civilians and also using their own civilians to protect them both in breach of, um, the Geneva Convention. So, um, you know, it's, it's, it's pretty remarkable if we, if we look at all, if we dissect all of these issues over and over again, we really shouldn't forget that this is still happening.
Hillel Fuld: But again, to reiterate what I said before, I don't expect anything from Hamas, but the fact that everything that you just said is true and the Western world still, you know, presents Israel as the aggressor, the oppressor, and you know, as, as this is. This, this nation committing genocide and apartheid and all the stupid, ridiculous claims that are being thrown at Israel, thrown at Israel.
Despite the facts, we have the fact that they're documented. That it's not even like Hamas is ashamed of it. They're proud of it. We have document, we have video and yet the world, [00:47:00] you know, Oh, it didn't really happen. Israel killed their own people. It's like. What, what does Israel have to do, right? So I think the answer is no matter what we do, no matter what, you know, how much justice is on our side, no matter how, how far we go to minimize civilian deaths, Jew hatred will overpower any of it.
And that is what we're seeing on the ground. And it's a, it's a very real thing. It manifests in very, very real ways.
Marc Beckman: And we see this hypocrisy happening, um, all over the world, right, like Palestinian leaders have spoken out publicly as recently as two weeks ago in London saying that they will do this again and again and again to Israel, um, but yet we still close our eyes to it. The world closes their eyes to it,


Marc Beckman: so Hillel, we, um, have a tradition on Some Future Day. Our, our, our guests end the sentence, um, the, the, the show name Some Future Day is inspired, um, from literature, uh, from James [00:48:00] Joyce specifically. And what we do is we, we set up, I like to set up a guest with predicting what the future might be.
So I want to start the sentence for you and then you can take a second to think about it and, let me know what you think. But in some future day, technology will bring people together again on a global scale to provide
Hillel Fuld: Hope.
Marc Beckman: I love that. That's beautiful. Hillel, is there anything, uh, that we haven't covered today that you'd like to address?
Hillel Fuld: No, I think we, uh, I think we covered it all pretty well. Um, you know, I just think that whoever's, uh, listening, viewing this should really, um, I think make a conscious effort as a human being with, with integrity and with a conscience to try to step back from the propaganda they're being fed on mainstream media and try to look objectively.
I know it's hard to do. Just look objectively. You don't take any responsibility. component or any element of this war [00:49:00] from just look at the protests, look at the Palestinian protests, look at the Jewish protests. Do you not see it? Do you not see these two sides? Take whatever you want to look at and look at it objectively.
And I think, you know, the proof is in the pudding. I think it's clear that in this war, maybe more than any other war since the Holocaust, maybe even more than any other war period, this world Is now being split into two. There's good and there's evil. And any, you know, sort of moral equivalence, an equal sign between, oh, there are two sides, is moral bankruptcy.
There are not two sides. There's good and there's evil. There's the side that minimizes civilian deaths, and there's the side that maximizes civilian deaths. That's it. And anybody who doesn't have the ability to say that clearly, Is either blind or I don't know. You finish that sentence for me. I mean, it's impossible not to see unless you don't want to see it.
Marc Beckman: Alright, Hillel. Well, thank you so much for your time today, honestly. It's, it's, [00:50:00] um, you know, truly been a pleasure. You're inspiring, you're insightful, obviously passionate, and you're a great human being, and I really appreciate the time you gave today, and it's been a pleasure getting to know you.
Hillel Fuld: Thank you, Mark. Appreciate the opportunity and I'm looking forward to grabbing a cup of coffee in Tel Aviv with you soon.
Marc Beckman: I would love that. I would absolutely love that. [00:51:00]