Israel Gets Sensible and Thoughtful Musk

After a week of OpenAI and Thanksgiving, we’re back to regularly scheduled tech programming. That means Elon Musk is once again all over the news, this time visiting Israel in what appears to be an effort to counter perceptions, rekindled by this tweet from two weeks ago, that he is antisemitic. Not surprisingly, we got the respectable version of Musk, as demonstrated in this video of him—escorted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—touring the site of one of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israelis. You have to wonder if any other U.S. CEO would get the same kind of treatment from Netanyahu in the middle of a war. 

With both the tour and a separate online discussion between the two men today, Netanyahu is treating Musk like the leader of a country, not as a shambolic entrepreneur who seems to delight in offending people. Netanyahu of course has his own political problems: Maybe he thinks the association with Musk will help his image! But this is the paradox of Elon Musk. On the one hand, he’s brilliant and visionary, with global influence rivaling that of governments, as demonstrated by his leadership of Tesla and SpaceX. When you hear him speak, he can sound smart and thoughtful. On the other hand, on X he comes across as an impetuous two-year-old, making dumb jokes and—worse—saying thoughtless and offensive things that scare away both advertisers and users. Just imagine how much more successful he could be if he learned a tiny bit of self-discipline! (For more on Musk’s visit, see here.)