Those intent on murder must be neutralised, says Musk in Israel

Billionaire tours kibbutz attacked last month amid criticism over anti-Semitic content on X.

Elon Musk said that those “intent on murder must be neutralised” after touring an Israeli community recently attacked by Hamas, weeks after the billionaire described an anti-Semitic social-media post on X as “the actual truth”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday took Musk on a tour through Kfar Aza, a kibbutz attacked on Oct. 7. Netanyahu later showed Musk a video of the attacks on Israeli civilians, and the two men then livestreamed a conversation on X.

“It was jarring to see the scene of the massacre,” Musk said during the conversation, adding that it was “troubling” to see the joy expressed by those killing innocent civilians, referring to the video he was shown.

“The propaganda must stop that is training people to be murderers in future,” Musk said.

He added that for a lasting peace, Gaza must be made more prosperous, and that he “would love to help.”

Israel has been visited by dozens of foreign dignitaries since its war with Hamas began over 50 days ago, but few if any have been given the level of attention that Musk has by the Israeli prime minister and other senior Israeli officials.

Musk later met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog along with relatives of some of the hostages taken to Gaza, who talked about their family members being held captive by Hamas.

Herzog discussed how Musk can help combat the anti-Semitism that “lurks underneath and impacts so many societies”.

“You have a huge role to play,” Herzog told Musk, according to a transcript of the conversation provided by his office. “I think we need to fight it together because on the platforms which you lead, unfortunately, there’s a harbouring of a lot of all the hate.”

Musk said, “We have to do whatever is necessary to stop the hate,” according to the transcript.

Musk’s visit to Israel comes at a time when he and his social-media platform have come under fire from Jewish advocacy organisations because of a reported rise in anti-Semitic posts on X since he took over the platform, formerly known as Twitter, last year.

Earlier this month, Musk agreed with a post on X that said Jewish people hold a “dialectical hatred” of white people, eliciting a new round of criticism that he promotes anti-Semitic views. Musk responded to a user’s post that espoused an antisemitic conspiracy theory with: “You have said the actual truth.” He then seemed to qualify his response in a later post.

Musk has taken to X to address what he said were “bogus media stories” claiming he was anti-Semitic, posting that “Nothing could be further from the truth.” Nevertheless, a number of large companies including Apple and Disney have stopped advertising on Musk’s social-media platform. IBM has also halted ads on X, citing a report from the liberal media-watchdog site Media Matters for America that said the tech company’s ads appeared next to pro-Nazi posts on the site.

Elon Musk, left, meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem. They were joined ny familes of hostages taken by Hamas. Picture: Getty Images

Multiple ad buyers said they have had several brands flee X in the wake of the Media Matters report and Musk’s controversial tweets, and others have asked to quietly reduce their X spending so they won’t raise the ire of Musk, who has publicly lambasted advertisers for pulling spending.

X has subsequently sued Media Matters alleging in its lawsuit filed in federal court the group was trying to drive away its advertisers. In its suit, X said most users wouldn’t have seen the ads next to the posts Media Matters found. Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, said the organisation stood behind its reporting.

Musk’s trip to Israel on Monday isn’t the first time he has met with top Israeli officials. The entrepreneur met Netanyahu in California in September. At that meeting, Musk said he was “against anti-Semitism” and against “anything that promotes hate and conflict.”

Netanyahu’s further engagement with Musk could be motivated by a belief he can get the billionaire to change how he manages anti-Semitic content on X or influence discussion about Israel’s war with Hamas, said Aviv Bushinsky, a former chief of staff of the Israeli prime minister. However, the pair’s previous meeting doesn’t appear to have made a difference, meaning Netanyahu may have spent too much time on a “photo op,” he added.

“The attention and treatment [Musk] received was way over proportional to his previous behaviour and the potential public influence that he has, ” said Bushinsky.

Separately Monday, Israel’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, said in a post on X that an agreement in principle had been reached with Musk in regards to the operations of the Starlink communications service.

Under the agreement, Karhi said, Starlink satellite units can only be operated in Israel and the Gaza Strip with the approval of the communications ministry. Starlink is owned by Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, and provides internet connectivity using a swarm of satellites.

At the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, Musk had said that he planned to allow humanitarian organisations in Gaza to use Starlink amid frequent shutdowns of the enclave’s communications networks.

Israel has often accused aid organisations in Gaza of co-operating with Hamas. Following Musk’s statement earlier in the war, Karhi said Israel would fight against the activation of Starlink in Gaza.

Harel Menashri, a former cyber official in Israel’s national security services, said having control over Starlink’s use in Gaza is important for Israel because Hamas’s use of the technology could pose a challenge. He said Russia had tried and failed to halt Starlink’s operations in Ukraine.

“We don’t want Hamas, which is a terror organisation, to have communications that could give us difficulties,” said Menashri.

Menashri said that despite Musk’s recent comments regarding Jews, Israel still needs to ally itself with him. “He’s a very important person in the world who has a lot of influence. We need to work with him and not against him,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal