Elon Musk will visit Israel next week to show solidarity with the traumatized residents of Gaza frontier towns that were overrun by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, according to Hebrew-language media.
The Tesla mogul who owns the X social media platform is expected to get a first-hand glimpse of the devastation left by armed Palestinian Islamists who used hang-gliders and pickup trucks to cross the Israel-Gaza border in an assault just after dawn — resulting in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction of more than 200 people.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day truce that went into effect on Friday. As per the terms of the deal, the Gaza-based terrorist group will release a group of hostages in exchange for an Israeli pledge to free scores of Palestinian prisoners.
Musk, who has been widely criticized for appearing to endorse an antisemitic conspiracy theory which accuses Jews of facilitating mass migration of minorities to the West, is reportedly scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog.
News of Musk’s planned visit was reported by the N12 news site.
The Post has sought comment from X as well as from representatives of the Israeli government.
Israeli officials were angered by Musk after he announced last month that his rocket-building company, SpaceX, would provide Starlink satellite-based internet service to the Gaza Strip.
Musk said the service would benefit Gaza-based humanitarian organizations, but Israeli officials alleged that Hamas would make use of the technology for military purposes.
Musk and X have vehemently denied accusations from liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America and others that the platform promotes neo-Nazi and antisemitic content.
The social media company formerly known as Twitter filed a “thermonuclear” lawsuit against the Democratic Party-aligned Media Matters over a report which found that pro-Nazi content was appearing next to ads from blue-chip companies.
In response to the report, large corporations such as Disney, IBM, Apple, Comcast and Warner Bros. Discovery paused ads on X — which has sought to woo advertisers who fled the platform in the weeks and months following Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the company last year.
In recent months, Musk has butted heads with the Anti-Defamation League, the civil rights organization which has sought to combat antisemitism in the US.
Musk threatened legal action against the ADL after he accused the group of scaring off advertisers by claiming that X was a haven for neo-Nazi and antisemitic voices.
The ADL was among scores of organizations that condemned Musk for a post in which he reacted approvingly to a comment by an X user who alleged Jews were encouraging mass migration of minorities to the West as part of a conspiracy against white people.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt angered friends and foes alike just days later when he praised Musk for pledging to crack down on pro-Palestine voices who use the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a statement that some interpret as a call to exterminate the Jews of Israel.
“When it comes to this platform — X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the world – it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino said last Thursday.
Musk on Tuesday pledged to donate X subscription and ad revenue generated by the Israel-Hamas war to Israeli and Palestinian hospitals and medical crews on the ground.
The move came at around the same time that some two dozen Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to Musk to express concern the platform seemed to be profiting from premium accounts that glorified violence against Israelis.
In the letter to Musk and Yaccarino, the lawmakers noted reports from nonprofit organizations that showed people with X Premium accounts “glorifying barbaric acts of violence against Israelis.”
The lawmakers said X profited from the posts both from subscription fees as well as ads displayed in replies to both Premium and regular posts.
“X has financially benefited from the spread of demonstrably false and misleading content as well,” the lawmakers wrote.
Credit: Source link
