'Musk, Facing Risk of Losing 97 Billion, Meets Netanyahu and Says "I Will Help"'

Anti-Semitism Controversy Musk
IBM, Apple, Disney Advertisers Withdraw, Heads to Israel
Meets Netanyahu, Tours Devastated Village

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, visited Israel and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This move came as a damage control effort after Musk faced backlash for anti-Semitic controversies on his social media platform X, leading to a mass exodus of major advertisers and mounting losses.

On the 27th (local time), Netanyahu's office released a 26-second video showing Musk and Netanyahu, both wearing bulletproof vests, inspecting the ruins of a destroyed building under the protection of security personnel. The site they visited was the Kfar Aza kibbutz, one of over 20 villages attacked by Hamas on October 7. They also visited the home of Abigail Idan, a four-year-old Israeli-American dual citizen who was held hostage and released the previous day, along with the homes of some victims.

During the meeting, when Netanyahu said, "Hamas must be eliminated," Musk responded, "There is no choice. I will help too." Musk added, "Murderers must be neutralized, and the propaganda that trains people to become murderers must stop," and said, "If Gaza can be made prosperous, a better future will unfold." In response, Netanyahu said, "I hope you will get directly involved," and "Your very presence here will lend weight to your commitment to a better future."

[Image source=UPI Yonhap News]

The meeting took place on the fourth day of a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. After meeting Musk, Netanyahu wrote on X, "I showed him the site of the inhumane crimes committed by Hamas." Earlier, during his visit to the United States for the UN General Assembly in September, Netanyahu met Musk and directly urged him to "find ways to limit anti-Semitism and hatred."

During his meeting with President Isaac Herzog that day, Musk said, "I had an emotionally difficult day watching videos of people killing innocent people and rejoicing," adding, "They must have been exposed to propaganda from a young age that this is a good thing." President Herzog said that X is filled with anti-Semitism and told Musk, "You have a tremendous role to play, and we must fight together." During his visit to Israel, Musk is also scheduled to meet Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party, which is part of the wartime cabinet.

Major foreign media outlets such as The Washington Post (WP) evaluated Musk's trip to wartime Israel as a desperate measure to quell the anti-Semitism controversy. Recently, Musk publicly endorsed posts on his X account promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, sparking controversy.

This led to strong backlash from the Jewish community and across the United States, with major advertisers such as IBM, Apple, Walt Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery withdrawing their ads en masse. The estimated loss from this is $75 million (approximately 97.7 billion KRW). With over 200 companies and organizations, including Amazon, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft (MS), having cut or considering cutting advertising on X, the losses are expected to grow even larger.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.