NEW YORK — Business magnate and Twitter CEO Elon Musk, whom many left-leaning Jewish organizations have accused of antisemitism for his criticism of Hungarian-born Jewish Holocaust survivor George Soros, responded last week to an interview with Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
In the CNBC interview, Greenblatt said Musk is not an antisemite. “There’s no question about that. “But it’s unmistakable that he is arguably the most influential man on the planet, controlling what’s essentially our public square.”
Still, said Greenblatt, it has an impact “when he repeats conspiracy theories and amplifies ideas that George Soros an already polarizing figure is a supervillain trying to destroy humanity, such statements feed the extremists who want to kill supervillains especially those who think that Soros embodies the idea of the Jewish conspiracy.”
Musk wrote in reply: “In fairness, I must concede that Jonathan has a good point, and I will endeavor to be more thoughtful in the future.”
However, Musk couldn’t resist another related comment.
“Comic-book analogies are obviously imperfect, to say the least. Just because George Soros can bend metal using his mind doesn’t mean he’s Magneto!!” he said.
Here Musk is attempting to compare Soros to the comic-book character.
He goes on to say that his “actual concern” with Soros is his funding of “so many politicians and district attorneys who are soft even on violent crime, which has caused great damage to many cities.”
Musk says that though he’s in favor of the expansion of legal immigration, “people must still be vetted to avoid letting in dangerous felons who may prey upon innocent Americans”.
Produced in association with Jewish News Syndicate
(Additional reporting provided by JNS Reporter)
Edited by Daisy Atino and Deborah .C. Amirize
