Josh Kushner defends tech CEO for visiting Israel
Billionaire venture capitalist and Trump in-law Josh Kushner slapped down online criticism of a tech executive who visited Israel and posted an image of the Tel Aviv beachfront on social media.
Kushner, the brother of President-elect Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, took to the social media platform X on Wednesday to defend Patrick Collison, the co-founder and CEO of payment processing firm Stripe.
Collison, whose company is partially owned by Kushner’s venture capital firm Thrive Capital, caused a stir among pro-Palestinian supporters on X after he posted an image showing Tel Aviv’s beachfront promenade in a photo that appears to have been taken early in the morning on Wednesday.
“Great to be back in Tel Aviv. I missed this run,” Collison wrote.
Collison’s seemingly innocuous post went viral, generating more than 14,000 likes as well as thousands of comments — many of them from pro-Palestinian sympathizers who noted the thousands who have died as a result of Israeli military actions launched in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacres.
Paul Biggar, a software engineer and pro-Palestinian activist, responded to Collison’s post by writing: “Ten people reached out to me about this tweet. Sad day.”
Kushner wrote: “agree. saddened by how much hatred people have for jews. happy thanksgiving.”
Biggar, who urged his followers on social media to boycott Stripe, replied to Kushner’s comment, writing: “Why do you think this is about Jewish people? This is about Israel and its occupation and genocide in Palestine.”
“It is a tactic of Israel and their supporters to label criticism of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, and genocide of Palestinians as ‘anti-semitism’,” Biggar told The Post via email.
“This is of course absurd. Kushner is attempting to silence criticism of a genocide.”
The Post has sought comment from Kushner and Collison.
It is rare for Josh Kushner, 39, to weigh in on hot-button political issues. His social media page primarily consists of posts related to his business ventures, including Oscar Health, the health insurance company he co-founded in 2012.
In December of last year, he reacted to then-Harvard President Claudine Gay’s testimony before Congress in which she defended her administration’s handling of alleged antisemitic incidents on campus related to the Israel-Gaza crisis.
Kushner, who like his brother attended Harvard, wrote: “congressional testimonies speak louder than tweets. harvard is better than this.” The post included an emoji depicted a broken heart.
The Kushners are scions of a prominent New Jersey family that built a multi-billion dollar real estate empire. Their father, Charles Kushner, is a real estate developer who founded Kushner Companies with his dad, the late Joseph Kushner.
The Kushner family practices Orthodox Judaism. Their adherence to the religion is such that the famous wives of Jared and Josh Kushner — Ivanka Trump and supermodel Karlie Kloss, respectively — both converted to Judaism before exchanging nuptials.
After the Oct. 7, 2023 massacres by Hamas terrorists, Josh Kushner wrote: “I am heartbroken by the horrific atrocities that took place in Israel this weekend”
“My grandmother witnessed her mother murdered by the Nazis in front of her eyes because of her Jewish faith,” he wrote.
“It is hard to comprehend that we still live in a world in which hatred is the answer. The murder of innocent civilians is never justified.”
