Israel Daily News founder and CEO Shanna Fuld hosted two interviews at the Jerusalem Post diplomatic conference on Tuesday, September 16th. Fuld spoke with the VP of Sheba Medical Center’s Prof. Itai Pessach and American Venture Capitalist and Partner at Sequoia Capital/ Israel advocate Shaun Maguire.
Her first interview with Prof. Pessach highlighted the medical changes Israel has undergone since October 7th. Calling Sheba “factories of hope,” Prof. Pessach explained how despite the difficulties Israel is facing, Sheba continues to provide medical care to those in need, regardless of background.
“We do that not just by providing top notch medical care but also pushing boundaries and trying to set an example to everybody around us and how things could be and how things should be and how Israel can remain a leader in science, in healthcare, in providing opportunities and breaking boundaries. The Sheba mission statement is “provide hope without boundaries. And this is what made us one of the leading centers in the world,” Prof. Pessach said.
Prof. Pessach also explained how they had to make underground service readily available, and how a lot of practices have been moved to Telehealth. Many introductory medical calls are done with AI technology that presents as a person on a Zoom call. This helps manage a larger number of patients – and can get them what they need sooner.
“We needed to move 2,000 beds underground, and as the largest hospital in the Middle East, it was challenging. We had to come up with things we never thought of.”
He also talked about his experiences in receiving the hostages right after captivity, and how he personally met the hostages and how the role of Sheba is critical for the hostages recovery.
Her interview with Shaun Maguire began by reflecting on his friendship with Charlie Kirk. He also revealed why he enjoys working with Israelis and why he values them. “To me, the difference between the people of Israel today versus 20 years ago, is staggering in every way, even the psychology of the people. “Everyone here has a chip on their shoulder and grit and resiliency and you cannot find a better combination for building than all of those things,” Maguire said.
He revealed that his company, Sequoia Capital, had an Israeli office from 1999-2016, and they shut it down because it was not big enough. They became very active again in 2020. After October 7th, Maguire called all of Sequoias Israeli partners and asked them what percent of their employers were getting called up for miulim. Some of his partners revealed almost 30% had been called up. He was very nervous about how they were going to handle it, but every partner he had hit their numbers for the last quarter of 2023.
MacGuire concluded that he is not just fighting for Israel, but for the West as well.
