Israel has no choice but to “destroy Hamas,” Elon Musk said on Monday after meeting with the country's leadership in West Jerusalem. The owner of X (formerly Twitter) traveled to the Middle East after critics in the US accused him of anti-Semitism.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took Musk to tour Kfar Aza, the kibbutz in southern Israel struck by Hamas during the October 7 incursion, and showed the visitor the 44-minute film Israel had put together to showcase the Palestinian group’s alleged atrocities.
After the visit, Netanyahu hosted an audio “space” on X, in which he spoke with Musk about what the Israeli government was doing and described Hamas as a “death cult” that hides behind civilians in Gaza. During the broadcast, Musk agreed with most of Netanyahu’s arguments.
“If you want security, peace, and a better life for Gazans, then you need to destroy Hamas. You first have to get rid of the poisonous regime as was done in Germany and Japan,” said Netanyahu.
“There’s no choice,” Musk replied, adding, “You need to pair firmness and taking out the terrorists and those intent on murder, and at the same time help those that remain, which is what happened in Germany and Japan.”
Musk’s visit to Israel was announced on Sunday by President Isaac Herzog, whose office said the American billionaire would be told of “the need to act to combat rising anti-Semitism online.”
During the meeting, Herzog told Musk that “under the platforms you lead, unfortunately, there is a harboring of a lot of old hate, which is Jew hate, which is antisemitism,” according to the Times of Israel.
“You’ve seen how evil can supersede everything, you’ve seen this morning what hate can bring about, you’ve seen how… thought turns into evil turns into hate and into bloodshed,” Herzog argued, urging Musk to crack down on “Jew hate” on X.
Speaking about the film that Netanyahu had shown him, Musk described Hamas as people who have been “fed falsehood since they [were] children,” so they thought that murdering innocent people was a good thing.
“That’s how much propaganda can affect people’s minds,” he added.
Musk has denied allegations that X was enabling or tolerating anti-Semitism, pointing out that he has banned advocacy of “genocide of any group” and clarifying that phrases such as “decolonization” and “from the river to the sea” – often used by pro-Palestinian activists – “imply genocide” and can be grounds for a ban.