Musk Nazi Salute goes viral

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Well, be that as it may, whatever Musk did on Monday evening on stage in the Capitol One Arena, it was most definitely not a fascist or a Nazi salute, or to give it its correct title, a Roman salute.

Elon Musk is being wrongfully slandered, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a post on X/Twitter on Thursday after Elon Musk appeared to make a Heil Hitler salute at the Presidential Parade earlier this week.

"Elon is a great friend of Israel," Netanyahu wrote, adding, "He visited Israel after the October 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.

President of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, made a similar statement earlier this week. @elonmusk is no Nazi—he’s a great friend of the Jewish people."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come to the defense of Elon Musk, days after the billionaire and prominent Trump ally was accused of delivering Nazi salutes at a presidential inauguration rally.

One hour later, the world’s richest man was cracking Holocaust jokes on social media.

“Elon Musk is being falsely smeared,” Netanyahu wrote on Musk’s own social media account, X, Thursday morning. He avoided addressing Musk’s gesture directly but went on to call the tech mogul “a great friend of Israel.”

Netanyahu pointed to Musk’s visiting Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and advocating for what he said was “Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state.”

To which Musk, in turn, thanked him — only to fan the flames shortly after with a new X post.

“Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people will Goebbels anything down! Stop Gőring your enemies! His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler! Bet you did nazi that coming,” Musk posted Thursday, adding laughing-face emojis.

His post earned reprobation from Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, a group that took criticism days earlier for declaring that Musk’s hand gesture was not a Nazi symbol.

Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, denounced Musk’s jokes in stronger terms.

Protesters have seized on the charge: in Germany, an image of Musk’s raised arm with the word “Heil” was projected onto the side of a Tesla plant. And in Italy, a leftist student group hung an effigy of Musk at the Milan site where fascist prime minister Benito Mussolini was hanged in 1945.

Before his run of Nazi jokes, Musk — who now heads a government-efficiency program under Trump — had responded to the controversy by attacking his critics. “The radical leftists are really upset that they had to take time out of their busy day praising Hamas to call me a Nazi,” he wrote Wednesday on X, in a post shared by Netanyahu. The post echoed a growing pro-Israel talking point: that Musk’s critics are hypocrites for excusing antisemitism on the pro-Palestinian left.

Greenblatt’s Thursday critiques of Musk came days after the ADL had characterized his salute as “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute.” The ADL’s quick stance was criticized by several Jews and non-Jews alike. In recent days, other Jewish groups are continuing to define Musk’s gesture as a Nazi salute and suggesting the ADL had failed to meet the moment.

“Those trying to deny, minimize, or explain away Elon’s Nazi salute should consider that right-wing extremists, white nationalists, and neo-Nazis are embracing it,” Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said in a Wednesday statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Trump and his allies don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt in this precarious moment for our community and country.”

Musk's Nazi salute has gone viral on the internet.

It seems that not everyone thinks its a Nazi or facist salute.