Elon Musk begins wartime visit to Israel, aviation tracker says
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has landed in Tel Aviv, an aviation tracker said, beginning a visit during which Israeli leaders plan to bring his attention to the plight of hostages held in conflict-torn Gaza and discuss rising anti-Semitism online.
According to Reuters, Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s office announced on Sunday that Musk would be coming to meet the head of state. According to Israeli media, he will also meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Musk’s office had no immediate comment.
Avi Scharf, an aviation expert with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, posted on Musk’s media platform X — formerly known as Twitter — that a plane carrying the billionaire, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, had touched down in the morning.
Netanyahu met Musk in California on Sept 18 and urged him to strike a balance between protecting free expression and fighting hate speech after weeks of controversy over anti-Semitic content on X.
Musk responded by saying he was against anti-Semitism and against anything that “promotes hate and conflict”, repeating his previous statements that X would not promote hate speech.