Netanyahu, Musk meeting confirmed, said part of effort to end X antisemitism controversy

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Elon Musk when he travels to San Francisco next week, his office confirms.

The meeting comes with Musk being accused of amplifying antisemitism on his X social media platform and embroiled in a feud with the Anti-Defamation League.

The Washington Post, citing five people familiar with the situation, says that the planned meeting is part of “a campaign by Musk’s Jewish friends and allies, and executives of his social media company, to stave off the mounting controversy.”

The report claims that Netanyahu’s government defused an earlier antisemitism controversy when Musk went after Jewish megadonor George Soros.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli defended Musk after the tech billionaire had drawn fire from Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the ADL.

Israelis in San Francisco said they intended to protest the meeting.

“It’s deeply disturbing that Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the world’s only Jewish state, is flying across America to seek the counsel and support from a notorious enabler of anti-Jewish hate speech,” Offir Gutelzon, an Israeli tech entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, tells the Washington Post.

Netanyahu is also likely to face protests during his visit to the US by Israelis opposed to his government’s judicial overhaul.