Somewhat surprisingly, the richest and one of the most powerful people on the planet, Elon Musk, flew to Israel yesterday, met with President Yitzhak Herzog, visited with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a kibbutz attacked by Hamas fighters during the attack by October 7 and expressed strong support for Israel in the conflict with Hamas.
What is behind this unusual visit? Elon Musk is a billionaire and visionary (his business empire includes “Tesla”, the space flight company “SpaceX” and the social network “X”, formerly “Twitter”), but he does not deal with geopolitics (although only for the last two last month he spoke with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan). He has offered Netanyahu a hand in the future reconstruction of Gaza. And it has agreed not to provide Gaza with Starlink satellites without Israel’s permission.
Musk’s visit to Israel comes about 10 days after a dozen corporate giants including Apple, Disney, IBM and Comcast froze their ads on Ex, Musk’s social network. If others do,
“X” could lose $75 million in ad revenue
by the end of the year, according to the New York Times.
The problems for “X” began along two lines. First, Musk was accused of writing “This is true” on Oct. 15 under a post in Ax of a user who launched a conspiracy-anti-Semitic thesis. This brought him sharp criticism, including in an official statement from the White House, and the media picked up the narrative that Musk was anti-Semitic.
The answer of the entrepreneur in “X” was: “This week there have been hundreds of false media claims that I am anti-Semitic. Nothing could be further from the truth. I wish only good for humanity and prosperity and an exciting future for all.”
At the same time, “Media Matters”, an American NGO, attacks with pictures how in “X” advertisements of Apple and Oracle stand next to content with hate speech. That’s what made companies freeze their ads on Musk’s milkshake.
In response, Musk filed a defamation lawsuit against the NGO, and the social network said that what the activists from “Media Matters” showed was
impression manipulated by them.
Ex CEO Linda Yacarino wrote: “No authentic X users saw the IBM or Oracle ads next to the content that Media Matters points to. Only two users saw the Apple ad next to that content, at least one of which was Media Matters.”
“You are at the forefront of world progress with the most advanced technology on the planet,” Yitzhak Herzog wrote on his X profile after the meeting, “while unfortunately on social media platforms, including some you lead, there is so much of the old disease of anti-Semitism. You have an important role to play in preventing the spread of hatred against Jews and denying the horrors of the October 7 massacre. We must work together in this direction.”
And after his meetings in Israel, Musk, who obviously wanted to send a message with his visit, wrote in X “Actions speak louder than words”.
2023-11-28 20:00:00
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