Netanyahu Defends Elon Musk Over Salute: ‘Falsely Smeared’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Elon Musk on Thursday, saying the Tesla CEO is being “falsely smeared” by critics who say he gave a Nazi salute during President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

“Elon Musk is being falsely smeared,” Netanyahu posted on X, the platform Musk owns. “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.”

He continued: “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.”

Netanyahu’s support comes after Musk has been ripped by many over the past few days. On Monday, Musk, while thanking Trump supporters at a victory rally at Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C., slapped his chest and extended his right arm upwards. His detractors immediately condemned the gesture as a “sieg heil” Nazi salute.

“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert was one of those critics who mocked Musk for the salute on his show. “Wow, that sure looked like what it was,” the host quipped on Tuesday. “Now, I don’t know if Musk intended to do a Nazi salute. He says he is not a Nazi, but what I do know is people who aren’t Nazis know how to avoid doing a Nazi salute.”

Musk has denounced claims he’s an anti-Semite previously, telling CNBC in 2023, “I’m a pro-Semite, if anything.” The following year, after visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Musk said he was “aspirationally Jewish.”

“I have twice as many Jewish friends as non-Jewish friends. I’m like Jewish by association,” he told Shapiro.

On Thursday morning, Musk joked about the recent salute controversy with an X post that referred to several Nazi leaders.

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