Islamophobic Remarks :
Co-founder and managing partner of Lux Capital, Josh Wolfe is a strong advocate against genocide. Josh is from Brooklyn, New York, but judging from many of the voices he supports online, one could easily assume he is a right-wing settler.
He devotes a disproportionate amount of his time, even as a venture capitalist, to expressing his unfiltered views on social media. He has openly opposed calls for a ceasefire and backed Israeli war crimes and violations of human rights, even if it means endangering the lives of the hostages he purports to support.
Josh is a fervent advocate for destroying Gaza and the lives of the Palestinian residents. Even though there have been over 11,000 Palestinian deaths, he is adamantly opposed to a ceasefire. He argues that this does not amount to genocide because either too few people have been killed or because genocides against non-Jews are not truly genocides.
Josh conveniently overlooked the following statement in the very next paragraph of the same Wikipedia article while conducting his due diligence on the subject. “The Convention defines genocide as any of five acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” Additionally, he chooses to overlook the numerous pro-genocidal remarks made by Israeli military and government officials during the previous month.
Josh is, not surprisingly, placing a wager on the outcome of war. He has invested in Defense Tech Anduril alongside other proponents of genocide at Founders Fund, 8VC, and Andreessen Horowitz. The obsession of venture capital with making money off of war is a good representation of US policy. Budget deficits are insurmountable when Americans demand access to affordable healthcare, clean drinking water, or education, as we have witnessed over the past few years, but they inexplicably materialize when support for military aid packages for Israel and Ukraine is required.
Back to Josh who, despite his bravado, seems to fear the Palestinian flag. In one tweet, he demands that a new flag be created insinuating, in his quest to demonize all Palestinians and pro-Palestine supporters, that it has become the flag of Hamas.
Surprisingly, for a deep tech VC investor, he is also unable to distinguish AI-generated imagery, or worse, he is deliberately disseminating completely made-up stories, debunked ones, and misinformation—even about members of Congress who are currently in office.
When Josh isn’t propagating conspiracy theories online or encouraging genocide abroad, he enjoys using his free time to weaken people’s constitutional rights in the US. Josh has allied himself with prominent figures such as Bill Ackman to turn anti-Semitism into a weapon and carry out a McCarthyesque purge of those who oppose Israel and Zionism.
We also couldn’t help but notice that some of the other Partners at Lux, who are within his sphere of influence, haven’t been posting their thoughts on social media. Three partners have Middle Eastern connections: one spouse is Palestinian, one worked for the State Department and received a master’s degree from Georgetown School of Foreign Service, and one went to high school in the region. A group this diverse and locally connected would surely have some insights to offer on the subject?
Maybe these three successful partners don’t feel comfortable voicing their opinions in public with someone who has made it his mission to disparage views opposing genocide and link any backing for the Palestinian people to Hamas. We’ve talked to other members of the worldwide tech community who worry that Josh will punish them for coming out. We stay anonymous (for the time being) due to the power and hate of tech investors like Josh.
He “learned most everything he needed to know about humanity growing up on Coney Island, with its hucksters and scammers,” according to a recent Institutional Investor profile. It’s clear that he knows just as much about the Middle East as the average carny and has no trouble tricking people with false information. It’s time to stop supporting bullying and genocide.
We demand that Josh stop spreading false information, stop bullying students and his peers in Silicon Valley, and publicly denounce the violence of a state that has killed 11,000 civilians in the last month alone—all without using the tired “but Hamas” defense. We further demand that Lux’s limited partners, investors, fund managers, corporate service providers, financial free zones, and regulators cut ties with the human rights and pro-genocide organization. Stop allowing venture capital to fund genocide.