In January 2023, Eynat Guez, CEO and Co-Founder of Papaya Global, a billion-dollar Israeli software company, announced that Papaya Global is withdrawing all its funds from Israeli banks in response to the reform, explaining: “This is a painful but necessary business step.”
Globes pointed out at the time that in addition to causing harm to the Israeli economy (Papaya Global is valued at more than $3 billion), the move would damage the company as well since it’s more profitable for Israeli unicorns to hold their deposits in Israel (Rich Hi-Tech Leftist Trying to Start a Run on the Economy to Avenge Justice Reform).
Karma knocked on Guez’s door on March 10, 2023, when Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), where an estimated 500 Israeli companies kept their money, failed. The state regulatory agency revoked SVB’s charter and transferred the business into receivership in the second-largest bank failure in US history.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a calming statement, saying: “If necessary, out of responsibility for hi-tech companies and employees, we will take steps to help the Israeli companies (Israel Supporting Hi-Techs that Pulled Out Billions to Destroy Its Economy in Judicial Reform Protest).”
This was then. On Monday, News12 journalist Amit Segal reported that in Late October 2023, Business Insider contacted Guez to get her comments on a negative story about Papaya Global and herself.
According to Segal, Guez emailed the magazine a note saying, “I have relatives who have now been confirmed as hostages in Gaza. The instructions from the security agencies in the Israeli government are to prevent any publication about me. I am a person with a high public profile, and anyone who connects the dots between me and the abductees will jeopardize the chances of returning them home soon. Please refrain from mentioning my name.”
Segal noted that the article was purely business-oriented, but the magazine honored her wish and killed the story.
To their surprise, Guez herself did not follow the instructions she supposedly received from the security agencies. One week before BI contacted her, she was interviewed on Channel 13 by Raviv Drucker, and later was interviewed at length in a 48-minute podcast, which included her comments about the war.
Things became ridiculous when Guez issued a quote to the foreign press regarding the most high-profile event in America, the Superbowl, during which Papaya Global will be running a commercial.
Segal contacted Guez asking who were her relatives in Hamas’s hands in Gaza, not for publication, of course, but she refused to mention any name, including the name of the security official who had given her those orders.
Not a lazy man, Segal contacted every last Israeli agency involved in resolving the hostage crisis and their answers were pretty much identical: We have not been in contact with Guez, we do not have her name in connection with the hostages, we did not give her such an instruction – we don’t give such instructions.
Guez’s response: “The reference in question is from the end of October and the story presented here is not true. I am filled with hope that the hostages will return soon, and the rest of the details will become clear in time.”
Never mind, they’re actually very clear already.
