Billionaire Elon Musk recently expressed support for Israel in the ongoing conflict with Hamas after receiving a symbolic dog tag from a father whose child was allegedly held by the Palestinian group in Gaza. Mr Musk arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday for a two-day visit. During a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and the families of hostages, a parent named Malki presented the tech mogul with a dog tag with "our hearts are hostage in Gaza" engraved on it.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the Israeli president's office shared a video of Mr Musk meeting the families of the hostages. "In a meeting President @Isaac_Herzog held with @ElonMusk & families of hostages, Rachel showed Elon a video of her son Hersh, badly injured, being abducted by Hamas. Malki, father of another hostage, Omer, presented Elon with a dog-tag inscribed "our hearts are hostage in Gaza," the caption of the post read.
Responding to this, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO vowed to wear the dog tag every day until all hostages are released by Hamas. "I will wear it every day until your loved ones are released," he tweeted.
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During the meeting, Mr Herzog told Mr Musk that he has a "huge role to play" in combating anti-Semitism, which his social media platform is accused of spreading. Mr Herzog told him: "Unfortunately, we are inundated by anti-Semitism, which is Jew hatred. You have a huge role to play".
"And I think we need to fight it together because on the platforms which you lead, unfortunately, there's a harbouring of a lot of... anti-Semitism," the president added.
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Mr Musk, on the other hand, did not mention anti-Semitism in his video remarks released by Mr Herzog's office, but said that Hamas militants "have been fed propaganda since they were children". "It's remarkable what humans are capable of if they're fed falsehoods, from when they are children; they will think that the murder of innocent people is a good thing," he said.
Earlier on Monday, the Tesla CEO also met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They discussed "security aspects of artificial intelligence" with senior defence officials, the Prime Minister's Office said. Mr Netanyahu also took Mr Musk on a tour of an Israeli kibbutz destroyed during Hamas's October 7 attack. He heard briefings from a local council leader and a representative of the Israeli Defence Forces about the massacres in the Kfar Aza kibbutz. He was shown photographs taken a few days after the attack, as per a press release from the prime minister's office.
