Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday defended Elon Musk amid accusations of the X owner making a Nazi salute earlier this week.

On Inauguration Day, Musk spoke to supporters at Capital One Arena in Washington. At one point during his speech, he extended his arm outward with his palm facing down.

Musk then told supporters, “my heart goes out to you.”

The move was quickly criticized as appearing similar to a Nazi salute, with a PBS News correspondent saying during coverage of Musk’s speech it “certainly appears to be a ‘Heil Hitler.” However, the Anti-Defamation League, a leading antisemitism watchdog, later described the motion as an “awkward gesture” and urged people to “give one another a bit of grace.”

Taking to X, Netanyahu further defended Musk, who oversees the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

“@elonmusk is being falsely smeared,” he wrote. “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 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,” the prime minister added. “I thank him for this.”

Musk responded by saying “thank you” in a post of his own.

It is not the first time Musk has faced accusations of antisemitism. Several major advertisers pulled content from X in 2023 after claiming their material appeared alongside unregulated pro-Nazi content.

Musk also received backlash in 2023 after replying “you have said the actual truth” to a post appearing to express indifference toward antisemitism. Former White House spokesperson Andrew Bates, who most recently served under the Biden administration, condemned the response as an “abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., also used the response to taunt Musk, writing via X “sometimes being quiet is free and good for you.”

Musk in 2024 attended Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress as his guest. The two met afterward for a discussion surrounding “the opportunities and challenges in AI, its impact on the economy and society, and explored ways for technological cooperation with Israel,” according to Musk.

Netanyahu and Musk also met in Israel in November 2023 after war broke with Hamas. During the visit, the two toured kibbutz Kfar Aza, an area attacked by Hamas terrorists during their deadly assault on Oct. 7 of that year.

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