A Silicon Valley VC Says He Got the IDF Starlink Access Within Days of October 7 Attack

https://www.wired.com/story/shaun-maguire-starlink-idf-israel-gaza/

Posted by wiredmagazine

6 comments

  1. Prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist Shaun Maguire said on a webinar last week that he personally facilitated getting the Israel Defense Forces access to Starlink satellite internet, which is operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, within hours or days of it beginning its military response in Gaza to Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023—far earlier than either Israel, Musk, or SpaceX have publicly acknowledged.

    The topic was initially broached by Tel Aviv–based venture capitalist Aviv Eyal, who was introducing Maguire at the beginning of the May 14 webinar titled “Why VCs Are Betting On Defense Tech.” The webinar was hosted by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s “Mafat for Startups,” a defense startup investment program run by its Directorate of Defense Research & Development.

    It is unclear exactly when Starlink was activated for IDF use, even according to Eyal and Maguire’s recollections. Eyal initially claimed on the webinar that it took Maguire “12 hours, maybe less, to get Starlink switched on over Israel.” Maguire added that he believed Eyal contacted him some time between October 8 and October 9; later on the webinar, Maguire said that he brought Starlink to the IDF on October 9. Israel would not officially approve of SpaceX’s limited use in the country until more than four months later. It also appears that SpaceX did not have a contractual agreement with the Pentagon at the time it began providing Starlink to the IDF, which the Pentagon required before SpaceX could provide Starlink to Ukraine. The Pentagon did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

    Maguire did not respond for comment. When reached by WIRED, Eyal said that his reply was off the record, a condition WIRED did not agree to. He said that the webinar “was held ‘off the record’ and stated as such at the start of the webinar.” However, this was not stated during the webinar nor in the event description/

    Read more: [https://www.wired.com/story/shaun-maguire-starlink-idf-israel-gaza/](https://www.wired.com/story/shaun-maguire-starlink-idf-israel-gaza/)

  4. Wired needed to publish a minimum of Israel bashing stories barely connected to their focus due to their staff.

    And this nothing burger is the best, they could find?

  5. A large portion of what caused the delay in getting Starlink to Ukraine was the fact that Russia operates their own satellites over that territory. Therefore It was a much more complex situation to redirect starlink to over Ukraine when Russia could potentially retaliate against the system itself. That issue doesn’t exist for Israel in the Middle East, Iran has zero capability to strike at starlink. That couldn’t be said about Russia, which is why there is a different timeframe

  6. Isn’t Israel pretty well covered in 4/5G they control anyway?

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