Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu stated on Thursday that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, whom some are accusing of performing a Nazi salute at an inauguration celebration in Washington on Jan. 20, is “being falsely smeared.”
“Elon is a great friend of Israel. He visited Israel after the Oct. 7 massacre, in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Netanyahu stated. “He has since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state. I thank him for this.”
The Israeli prime minister posted the message in response to Musk, who wrote on social media that “the radical leftists are really upset that they had to take time out of their busy day praising Hamas to call me a Nazi.”

Russ Roberts, the president of Shalem College in Yerushalayim, also defended Musk. “Sorry to have to write this, but some Jews and others are demanding that Elon Musk clarify his recent gesture. Horrible idea,” Roberts stated. “I say this as a Jew. There is zero evidence that Musk harbors evil views.”
“The opposite: he sympathizes with Jews and Israel,” Roberts added. “For him to clarify matters is to incentivize evil people, encouraging them to keep making up things that raise their profile by stoking invented outrage. Ignore them.”
On Jan. 20, the Anti-Defamation League defended Musk and called for “a bit of grace” during “a delicate moment.”
At the time, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a member of the far-left, anti-Israel “squad” in Congress, denounced Musk and accused him of doing a Nazi salute.
On Wednesday, U.S. state officials also said that Musk was guilty of performing a pro-Nazi action.
Dana Nessel, a Democrat who serves as Michigan’s attorney general, referred to “a close adviser to the president giving the Nazi salute during an inaugural rally just this week.”
Nearly a dozen Jewish New York officials—including the city comptroller, state senators, state assembly members and a city council member—stated that “there is no room for ambiguity when it comes to Nazi symbology. The time is now to protect ourselves and our neighbors, not to normalize hate.”
Musk performed “what appeared to be two Nazi salutes—otherwise known as a ‘sieg heil’ or a ‘Roman salute’—at an official presidential event, from a podium that bore the presidential seal,” the officials stated.
“As Jewish elected officials committed to combating antisemitism in New York, we unequivocally condemn this action and the lack of apology,” they said
“Given that Elon Musk has repeatedly pushed the antisemitic ‘great replacement’ theory and endorsed the Nazi-supporting AfD (Alternative for Germany) party in Germany, it is not hard to imagine that he knew exactly what he was doing,” they added. JNS
{Matzav.com}