Rare rebuke.
Israel's foreign ministry
today is slamming
Elon Musk's recent series of tweets,
saying they have a, quote, anti-Semitic
feeling to it.
Yesterday, Musk
launched a baseless Twitter attack
against George Soros,
the progressive Jewish philanthropist
who's often
the target of antisemitic conspiracy
theories.
Musk tweeted
that Soros reminds him of Magneto
a comic book super villain.
Both, of course,
Soros and Magneto
are Holocaust survivors and Jewish.
Musk's reply
He wrote,
Soros does not have good intentions and,
quote, wants to erode
the very fabric of civilization.
Soros hates humanity, unquote.
Obviously, it's not
necessarily anti-Semitic to criticize
George Soros,
but the tweets do engage,
critics say, in tropes
that Jews are falsely cast
as evil masterminds
set out to harm the masses.
Here to discuss, Sarah Fischer,
CNN media analyst and Axios
senior media reporter,
along with Ted
Deutch is CEO
of the American Jewish Committee,
a former Democratic congressman
from Florida.
So Sarah
Musk didn't say what prompted the attack,
but you can't ignore the timing
that Soros recently disclosed.
He had sold
his entire holdings of stock in Tesla
which of course, is owned by Musk.
We're used to seeing
controversial comments from Musk.
Were you surprised by this?
I wasn't surprised by this.
Jake.
Musk has repeatedly engaged
in far right conspiracies.
You'll recall
with the Paul Pelosi attack,
he tweeted out
misinformation around that.
But I think it is important to note
that Elon
Musk, who still runs
a publicly traded business and Tesla
is going to have to be mindful
of the fact
that any time he's
going to pick on someone online
for dumping his stock
he risks other people
wanting to come in and buy it.
And so, you know, as a business person,
this is not the strongest move.
But Musk has long sort of held
some of these,
you know, more Republican, right
leaning beliefs.
Shortly after he took over Twitter,
he allowed a bunch of accounts
back on the platform
that had been banned,
including some neo-Nazi accounts.
And so to hear this type of rhetoric
coming from Elon Musk, it's
not totally shocking.
Ted Deutch, former Congressman Deutsch,
obviously criticizing
George
Soros is not inherently anti-Semitic.
What did you think of this?
Did you think comparing him to Magneto,
who is an evil super villain,
who was also like George Soros,
Jewish and Holocaust survivor,
saying that he hates humanity?
Did that cross a line for you
Sure, of course it did, Jake.
No, it's not.
It's not unacceptable to criticize George
Soros or anyone else,
but it is clearly not an accident.
When you compare him to a cartoon villain
who, like George
Soros, survived the Warsaw ghetto
and Auschwitz the tweet about this notion
that Soros
hates humanity
is trying
to destroy
civilizations plays
into the
classic anti-Semitic
conspiracy theory about
about Jewish wealth and power.
And we've seen anti-Semitism surge
since Musk took over,
took over Twitter
We've seen massive cuts
to the moderation team at Twitter.
And our own survey showed that
two thirds of Jews have experienced
the attack.
Technologies are seeing
anti-Semitism online.
85% of those under 30
and people feel
physically threatened as a result.
There are repercussions
when you do things like this.
It's it's unacceptable.
It's dangerous.
And it plays into these
classic conspiracy theories
that are inherently anti-Semitic.
And, you know, it's interesting
in terms
of how Elon Musk has as chosen
to run the platform.
He is constantly engaging with people
who are bad faith actors.
I mean, people who subscribe to Q
and on people
who are
white supremacists, people
who are
focused on black on white violence.
I mean, he's
people who criticize
his diversity in Hollywood casting.
I mean, these are choices he's making.
Yeah.
And there's surprising
choices, Jake,
because Twitter has been marked down
by analysts.
It's hemorrhaging its ad revenue.
And so Elon Musk,
you would think
as the CEO of this company
who said,
by the way,
that he wants to manage costs
to ensure
that it's profitable,
would be very mindful
of the misinformation
that he puts out there
and the types of accounts
that he engages with
because he wants to bring those
advertisers back.
Well, when we talk to agency
executives, people
who are buying ads
on behalf of Fortune five,
hundred brands and smaller companies,
they will tell you that
they have to caution their clients
when it comes to buying ads on Twitter,
not just because
of some of the content moderation
going down
but also because of Elon Musk himself
spewing misinformation.
So it's puzzling to me
why he continues to do this
and to behave this way.
But hopefully
now that they have a new CEO
you know, an advertising executive
with a lot of experience,
maybe she can bring him in.
So how
Congressman Deutsch,
your governor DeSantis, Ron DeSantis
frequently criticizes George Soros.
I mean, it is something he does.
It's something that a lot of people do
because he puts a lot of money
into progressive causes.
Including progressive districts.
Attorney.
Would you argue that
that is inherently anti-Semitic?
I mean, how would. Go ahead.
It's yeah, Jake, I don't want to pass
tweets and criticism of George Soros.
I think we have to acknowledge
in this in this instance that comparing
George Souris to a Holocaust Survivor
cartoon villain is not an accident,
but it's not.
I also don't want to miss
the opportunity, Jake, to point out
that as we're having this conversation,
the White House
is working on a national action plan
to combat anti-Semitism.
I hope that it calls
for greater transparency
at all
the social media companies and access
to the algorithms and the ability
to share their community standards
so that the world understands
that anti-Semitism
is not acceptable
on any social media sites.
All right.
Ted Deutch, Sarah Fisher,
thanks to both you for joining.
Appreciate.