How Oct. 7 reshaped Israel’s defense-tech doctrine
She was six months pregnant when the call came. Lital Leshem, co-founder of Protego Ventures , an Israel-based fund investing in early-growth companies driving innovation in critical areas of defense technology, deployed south to the…
Assessment
The October 7 attack exposed a systemic failure in Israel's defense ecosystem: cutting-edge technology existed but was not operationally integrated. The gap between innovation and battlefield deployment has now become the central problem Israeli defense policy must solve. The story of a pregnant venture capitalist watching the crisis unfold from a war room signals that the defense-tech sector itself is scrutinizing how its creations reach soldiers. Watch for structural reforms within the IDF and defense ministry to shorten the pipeline from lab to frontline.