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Notable technology mogul Elon Musk, under scrutiny from human rights organizations for allegedly stoking anti-Semitic sentiments on his X social network, is set to sit down with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog this Monday.
The information was brought to light by Channel 12 TV on Sunday, and a local source later validated the itinerary of Musk, who also stands at the helm of Tesla and SpaceX. Representative voices from Tesla and X, known in the past as Twitter, have yet to reply to calls for comment.
Musk’s trip corresponds with a provisional ceasefire called amidst conflict between Israel and Hamas. It appears to be a follow-up to a meeting he had with Netanyahu in California on September 18, where the Israeli Prime Minister reportedly appealed to him for a mitigation of open dialogue and hate speech ensuing the continued dispute on X over anti-Jewish content.
In conversation with Netanyahu, Musk had voiced opposition to anti-Semitism and anything that ‘fuels discord and hostility,’ echoing his prior assertions that X should not be a platform for hate speech.
Nonetheless, it was a raised eyebrow when Musk seemed to concur with a X post that wrongfully proposed Jews were instigating animosity towards white individuals, dubbing the ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy notion as ‘absolute truth’.
This sparked strong disapproval from the White House, which described this incident as a ‘shocking endorsement of anti-Semitic and racist hate’ that stands ‘contrary to our fundamental principles as Americans.’ Top-notch U.S. conglomerates such as Walt Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, and Comcast, NBCUniversal’s parent company, momentarily suspended their commercials on X.
The ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy erroneously purports that Jews and left-leaning individuals are manipulating the ethnic and cultural shift of white society with non-white immigration, ultimately causing ‘white genocide.’
Rising concerns of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are being confronted, both in the United States and elsewhere, further fuelled by the ongoing seven-week conflict between Israel and Hamas that has only worsened the situation.
In the wake of the war outbreak, the Anti-Defamation League – a nonprofit committed to combating anti-Semitism – reported approximately a 400% surge in anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S., compared to the same time frame last year.
Musk has, nonetheless, assertively defended that X exists to facilitate the sharing of a myriad of perspectives, but also clarified that the platform would curb the amplification of any posts potentially breaching its rules, summing up his approach as ‘freedom of speech, not reach.’
Musk is also in the process of establishing an artificial intelligence startup termed xAI. The interest in Israel rises from its status as a globally renowned powerhouse in the area, owing to its flourishing computing and robotics sectors.
The Israeli economy, nearing a half trillion dollars, had a promising prediction of upwards of 3% growth rate for this year, in tandem with low unemployment rates. Currently, the growth is speculated to be around 2%, with a stuttering progression anticipated in 2024, contingent on the persistence of the war.
Initially, the war had triggered the shekel – Israeli currency – to plummet by roughly 6% but it has since rebounded by an 8% rise against the dollar achieving pre-war equivalency. Assisted primarily by domestic investors, equity values have managed a bounce-back from their precipitous drop last month.
The information has been gathered from the contributions by seasoned journalists Kenneth Li, Ari Rabinovitch, and Steven Scheer, with former correspondent, Howard Goller, rewriting the material. Lisa Shumaker performed the final edits to bring the news to the public.