Elon Musk expected to visit Israel this week amid Gaza war and X antisemitism storm
Elon Musk expected to visit Israel this week amid Gaza war and X antisemitism storm
There is no detailed schedule for the visit yet, but IDF sources say that he is expected to visit a closed military area during it. It is possible that Musk will enter the Gaza Strip to see the war with Hamas up close, or he will visit one of the towns attacked by Hamas on October 7
The billionaire and owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, is expected to visit Israel this week. This is against the background of claims of anti-Semitism on his part and following the wide circulation of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel posts on X, which resulted in a massive abandonment of advertisers.
Musk's visit was initiated and managed by the Prime Minister's Office, with the involvement of the IDF. There is no detailed schedule for the visit yet, but IDF sources say that he is expected to visit a closed military area during it. It is possible that Musk will enter the territory of the Gaza Strip to see the war with Hamas up close, or he will visit one of the towns attacked by Hamas by October 7.
Musk will arrive in Israel amid a mass abandonment of X advertisers, which followed his support for a post on the social network centered on an anti-Semitic conspiracy. Among the prominent advertisers who left the platform are Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Disney, Coca-Cola, and Airbnb. According to a New York Times report from the weekend, more than 200 brands have stopped or are considering stopping advertising on X, and the company could lose as much as $75 million in advertising revenue by the end of the year.
Musk's support for an anti-Semitic post was, for the publishers, only the straw that broke the camel's back, since in the year since he took control of Twitter, Musk has altered its content control systems, which led to a sharp increase in the scope of hate and incitement content on the platform. This increase has greatly intensified in the last month and a half since the beginning of the war with Hamas, in light of a jump in the scope of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli content.
The visit is expected to be used by Musk as a tool to whiten his public image, in the hope that joint photos with the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other Israeli officials will help him shake the anti-Semitic stain that has stuck to him. This will be a move similar to the one made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the United States in September. In a meeting between the two, the Prime Minister heaped compliments on Musk, saying, among other things, 'I also know that you oppose anti-Semitism.'"
