Lost hearts, closed minds. Medical research show ignores plight of Gaza, amplifies Israel
Cardiologist Peter Macdonald is free to work again at St Vincent’s Hospital and the Victor Chang Institute. But the medical research industry is still in the hands of the pro-Israel lobby. Wendy Bacon And Cathy Peters Report on last week’s Sohn Hearts & Minds Conference.
Cardiologist Professor Peter Macdonald has returned to his laboratory at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (VCCRI) in Sydney after a ten-week enforced absence.
VCCRI had instructed the renowned cardiologist not to return to his laboratory after media reported a comment he made at an off-duty forum on August 30 suggesting that Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad may have been responsible for two anti-Semitic incidents in Australia.
Macdonald made no mention of either the VCCRI or his employer, St Vincent’s Hospital.
VCCRI CEO Professor Jason Kovacic had issued a media statement on September 3 criticizing Macdonald’s comment as ‘anti-Semitic and conspiratorial’ and ‘counter to our purpose of promoting the well-being of society’. The comment was published in The Australian the same day.
The Executive Council of Australian Jews called for Macdonald’s dismissal. Kovacic and VCCRI President Matthew Grounds declined to respond MWMDespite ‘s questions, we do not know which pro-Israel influencers led VCCRI to act so hastily and without any investigation or opportunity for Macdonald to explain his comment.
St Vincent’s crisis triage: heart doctor Macdonald returns to wards after witch hunt
On November 9, Kovacic’s press release was removed from VCCRI’s website
as did a similar statement made by St Vincent’s (MacDonald’s employer) two weeks ago.
Macdonald has made no public comment, but the quiet removal of the statement suggests he has kept his word and refused to apologize. He was seen at a pro-Palestinian march during his mandatory leave.
In a letter supporting Macdonald, the Medical Association for the Prevention of War wrote:
“Accusations of antisemitism are extremely serious. Vexatious or unfounded accusations distort our understanding of what antisemitism actually is. Through threats and intimidation, it has a chilling effect on the rights to freedom of expression and political opinion and can leave health advocacy wide open to political influence.”
Macdonald escaped the Zionist attack without going to court. But if a senior cardiologist working on a $20 million public grant can be suspended from his practice for ten weeks because he is suspicious of Israel’s intelligence agency, one wonders what that would be like for a junior doctor who feels compelled to voice concerns about Israel’s genocide and the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system.
Sohn Hearts and Minds Conference
While Macdonald was away from his lab, Grounds and longtime VCCRI Board member Gary Weiss, who has strong pro-Israel connections, were busy preparing for the 10th annual convention. Sohn Hearts and Minds Conference.
Hearts and Minds Conference. Image: sohnheartsandminds.com.au
The conference is a new approach to medical research funding that Grounds and Weiss brought to Sydney from New York in 2016. Each year, a selection of leading fund managers share their best investment ideas for the coming year with a high-paying audience at a one-day conference. Speakers donate their services for free for a great PR opportunity.
The conference is run in conjunction with Hearts and Minds Investment company (which is). MWM will be discussed in the next story.)
More than 30 charities have received funding from Hearts and Minds over more than a decade. Victor Chang has received by far the largest share, including $20 million over the past four years.
Hearts and Minds describes its conference as “Australia’s dynamic private day of idea sharing, all in support of medical research.” Each of the 800 attendees paid $3,500 to attend the event.
Orchestras and rock stars
The conference kicked off last Thursday evening with a cocktail party attended by Kovacic and 300 VIP guests, including VCCRI Board member and former Central Bank governor Philip Lowe. The party was held at Machine Hall, a popular substation in Sydney’s CBD. An orchestra was playing from the mezzanine.
On Friday, attendees packed the Sydney Opera House’s Dame Sutherland Auditorium to hear 2026 stock market picks from Treasurer Jim Chalmers, international guests and top local professional investment managers.
The conference’s website advertises the conference as having people collectively worth $1 trillion gathered in the room to hear “the world’s leading thinkers share their important insights.”
According to the Hearts and Minds website Gary Weiss chairs the committee selects the fund managers who speak at the conference.
New York-based billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist Daniel Loeb is always on the list of most desired speakers, Grounds said. He came in 2023 and was declared the best speaker this year. Loeb is the CEO of the $4 billion Third Point fund and sits on the right-wing think tank’s Council. American Enterprise Institute.
Heartless. Victor Chang Cardiac Institute and Israel lobby
Loeb is one of the best-known supporters of Israel in the United States. “If Israel were a company, I would invest in it,” he was quoted as saying. Earlier this year, Gary Weiss’ son Ben, a venture capitalist in Israel, was quoted as saying Loeb was treated like a ‘rock star’ in Tel Aviv.
Both the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights office, along with leading human rights NGOs, have accused Israel of deliberately destroying the Palestinian healthcare system. This is a war crime and a crime against humanity. In this context,
The choice of a speaker who so strongly aligns himself with Israel’s war machine is questionable.
Loeb is a donor 8200 Alumni Association A group consisting of former Israel Defense Force (IDF) members of the infamous Unit 8200, the IDF’s intelligence arm. Microsoft recently terminated this Unit’s access to the Azure Cloud following an investigation that exposed how it used Azure Cloud to run a mass surveillance system that collected, stored, and analyzed millions of civilian phone calls from Gaza and the West Bank targeting the Palestinian population.
Also my worst cartoon award.
— Daniel S. Loeb (@DanielSLoeb1) 16 November 2025
When Loeb decided to double down on his efforts in Israel by launching Third Point Ventures in Tel Aviv in 2022, he hired Sapir Harosh, a Unit 8200 veteran who is active in the Alumni Association and previously worked at Israeli state-owned arms company Rafael. Many of the companies Hanosh has invested in since joining Third Point were also founded by 8,200 veterans.
These companies include NextSilicon, an AI chip startup founded by Elad Raz, who worked on secret projects for the IDF, and Zenity, an artificial intelligence cybersecurity company founded by Ben Kliger, an 8200 veteran who also works in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office.
Coin
Loeb played a key role in US discussions about Israel’s war on Gaza. He was one of a group of American business leaders. Washington Post revealed Like secretly pressuring previous New York City Mayor Eric Adams to use police against pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University.
After the protests continued, Loeb announced that he would shift graduate hiring practices away from Columbia and other universities he perceived as anti-Israel. HE moved 1 million dollars Donation from Columbia to pro-Zionist Yeshiva University.
The foundation he manages with his wife Margaret Munzer donated millions from 2019 to 2023 to pro-Israel organizations, including nearly $400,000 to the US ‘Israel Coalition on Campus’, a group published by Nation magazine Reportedly has links to US intelligence and is accused of spying on anti-genocide student protesters and collecting their personal information.
Loeb was dismayed by the selection of Zohran Mamdani as a candidate for New York City Mayor and donated $750,000 to his rival Cuomo. He now worries about imposing a Soviet-style bureaucracy.
When UN Rapporteur Franscesca Albanese published her final report, she found that: Loeb retweeted a speech by Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon, saying the ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime perpetuated with the complicity of influential third states that enable long-standing systematic violations of international law by Israel.
He accuses Albanese of being a ‘witch’ who cast a ‘spell’ on his 164,000 followers.
Square Peg dark hole
The only company to have two speakers at last week’s conference was venture capital giant Square Peg, which has teams in Tel Aviv, Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore. Its CEO, Paul Bassat, is an outspoken supporter of Israel and has contributed to a $20 million fund. Iron Nation Supporting Israeli start-ups during the conflict in Gaza.
Iron Nation has invested in a number of companies, including Airwayz, which is involved in the development of autonomous drone defense technology. Its CEO is Brigadier General Yaron Rosen, who runs the Israeli Air Force Joint Operations Division and is the IDF Chief of Cyber Staff.
Another start-up backed by Iron Nation is Link 5, headed by Sayeret Matkal, a former fighter from the IDF’s elite special forces unit. Matkal said his “goal is to transform the battlefield in a way that reduces the risk to soldiers.”
Square Peg manages $3.6 billion in assets and has also invested heavily in Israeli startups, including those founded by the former Unit 8200 or elite IDF military intelligence such as Aidoc or Exodigo.
Ben Hensman, Square Peg’s Portfolio Manager, was one of ten fund managers selected to launch their chosen company for 2026 at the Opera House on Friday. He recommended the Israeli company Monday.com He has been subject to international protest and scrutiny for his work with the Israeli government during the Gaza genocide. Before this controversy, this company had included the government of Benjamin Netanyahu on its website as a case study.
Only friendly media invited
MWM She wanted to report on the Hearts and Minds conference but was told only paying media partners were allowed to attend. Partners include: AFR, SMH And AustralianIt produced numerous positive stories, photographs and even cartoons before, during and after the conference. That’s the beauty of having media partners.
None of the public information disclosed here was mentioned by media partners. In a fun, upscale event centered around the likely value of shares, the political context is irrelevant, but we can’t be sure of the networking around the conference where the real action often takes place.
As conference crowds headed for post-conference drinks, displaced Gazans were facing more serious health risks from flooding combined with sewage leaking from a drainage system destroyed by Israeli bombs.
Will Gaza be held accountable? | West Report
Wendy Bacon is an investigative journalist who is Professor of Journalism at UTS. He has worked for Fairfax, Channel Nine and SBS and has written in The Guardian, New Matilda, City Hub and Overland. It has a long history of promoting independent and alternative journalism.
He is a long-term supporter of peaceful BDS and the Greens.
Cathy Peters is a former ABC RN producer/executive producer and former Greens councilor for Marrickville Council. He has also worked for the state’s Green MP and is a long-time advocate for Palestinian rights. He co-founded PSNA/BDS Australia in 2014. He is of Jewish origin and has traveled and volunteered in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
