Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X, vocally supported Israel during his tour of the country, declared his commitment to doing whatever necessary to stop the spread of hate just weeks after he was accused of amplifying antisemitism.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also showed Musk, who also owns Tesla and Space X, footage of the 7 October attacks from Palestinian Militant group Hamas' bodycams and CCTV, and further toured an Israeli village that was attacked by Hamas.
Musk arrived in Israel on Monday, 27 November, after he wrote on X that "actions speak louder than words" and toured the Kfar Aza, an Israeli Kibbutz where Hamas killed dozens of Israelis were killed on 7 October and also heard from a representative of the Israeli Defence Forces.
Several major companies, including IBM, Apple, Disney, Amazon and Microsoft hit pause on their advertising campaigns on X last week after Musk agreed with a post that accused the Jewish community of spreading “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”
Not only was Musk denounced by the White House for his “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate," but The New York Times reported that X, formerly Twitter, may lose close to $75 million in advertisement revenue by the end of 2023.'
When Netanyahu, during an online broadcast on X, said that Hamas must be destroyed, Musk agreed and said, "There's no choice."
He furthered:
"I'd like to help as well."
Musk also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and the families of several Israelis who remain Hamas' captive.
On Monday, Israel appeared to have come to an agreement with Musk regarding his recent proposal to deploy his Starlink satellite internet service in Gaza for humanitarian use amidst communication outages.
Israel's communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, stated that Musk had agreed not to activate the system in Israel or Gaza without clearance from the communications ministry.
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