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Elon Musk is amplifying a self-declared antisemite’s call to ban the ADL from X
(JTA) — Elon Musk is engaging with white nationalists and antisemites who want to ban the Anti-Defamation League from Twitter, the influential social media platform he now calls “X.”
Musk on Saturday asked his followers whether he should poll the platform about a hashtag, #BanTheADL, embraced in recent days by white nationalists and others on the far right.
Musk had earlier “liked” the tweet launching the hashtag by Keith Woods, an Irish white nationalist and self-described “raging antisemite.”
“The ADL’s favourite tactic is financially blackmailing social media companies into removing free speech on their platforms,” Woods said in his Aug. 31 tweet. “Why should they have a platform on X to hold @elonmusk to ransom? It’s time to #BanTheADL.”
Musk liked two subsequent tweets by Woods, who touted Musk’s support to his followers. The hashtag was widely embraced on twitter by the far right, including by Andrew Torba, a Christian nationalist who refuses to speak with Jewish reporters and who founded Gab, a social media site, as a redoubt for the far right after Twitter started banning extremists. The shooter who killed 11 Jews at prayer in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 broadcast hours plans on Gab before the attack.
Woods’ tweet came after a day after Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO spoke with Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, about users trafficking in hate on the platform. The ADL has tracked massive spikes in racist, antisemitic and homophobic content and harassment since Musk bought then platform last year and restored extremist accounts banned under the previous management.
Greenblatt sounded positive about his conversation with Yaccarino, named to the job earlier this year after Musk ostensibly promised to cede leadership to a professional.
“I had a very frank + productive conversation with @LindayaX yesterday about @X, what works and what doesn’t, and where it needs to go to address hate effectively on the platform,” Greenblatt tweeted on Aug. 30. “I appreciated her reaching out and I’m hopeful the service will improve. @ADL will be vigilant and give her and @ElonMusk credit if the service gets better… and reserve the right to call them out until it does.”
In its response, the ADL attacked those who launched the campaign but did not mention Musk or his encouragement of the campaign.
“ADL is unsurprised yet undeterred that antisemites, white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and other trolls have launched a coordinated attack on our organization,” said a statement emailed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“This onslaught comes following our participation in the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington, where ADL proudly marched shoulder-to-shoulder with African-American leaders and those from other minority communities,” the statement said. “It also follows a meeting with the leadership of X, formerly known as Twitter, that clearly upset these hateful groups. Such insidious efforts don’t daunt us. Instead, they drive us to be unflinching in our commitment to fight hate in all its forms and ensure the safety of Jewish communities and other marginalized groups.”
The ADL has criticized Musk but also has sought to accommodate some of his requests, including issuing a condemnation last month of an Apartheid-era fight song calling to kill white farmers. Musk, who is a native South African, claimed the song supports anti-white hate. In May, Musk clashed with the ADL after it took him to task for echoing antisemitic tropes in his attack on George Soros, the liberal Jewish megadonor and hedge funder.
Musk, who claims to be a “free speech absolutist” has banned and made legal threats against journalists and others whose questions, tweets and statements upset him, with a focus on those, like the ADL, that track hate on the platform. In July, he sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate for its reports on Twitter.
Musk’s poll question on Saturday, “Perhaps we should run a poll on this?” quoted an endorsement of the trend by a Dutch right-winger. In exchanges in the replies, which are overwhelmingly positive, Musk said the century-old Jewish civil rights group has been “hijacked by the woke mind virus” and says it would be funny if it were sued for defamation.
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The post Elon Musk is amplifying a self-declared antisemite’s call to ban the ADL from X appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel Strikes Houthis in Yemen’s Capital Sanaa: Local Media
Smoke billows after an Israeli airstrike on Houthi infrastructure, in Sana’a, Yemen, May 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Israel attacked the Houthi rebels in Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Tuesday, Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV and other local media said, and eyewitnesses reported four strikes, after the Israeli military warned people to leave the area around the main airport.
The attack followed Israeli airstrikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah on Monday in response to a Houthi missile that landed near Israel‘s main air hub.
لقطات جديدة للغارات الجوية الإسرائيلية التي أصابت مطار صنعاء الدولي في اليمن. pic.twitter.com/DlzAqg5xES
— الأحداث العالمية (@NewsNow4USA) May 6, 2025
Tensions have escalated between Israel and Yemen’s Houthis as the Iran-backed terrorist group continues to launch attacks in response to Israel expanding operations in Gaza.
“Not evacuating puts you in danger,” the Israeli military said in its warning. It published a map of the area surrounding Sanaa International Airport.
Israel carried out strikes in the vicinity of Hodeidah on Monday which killed four people and injured 39, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate after a missile launched by Houthis landed near Israel‘s Ben Gurion Airport, which led to European and US airlines canceling flights.
The Houthis, an internationally designated terrorist group, have been firing at Israel and shipping in the Red Sea since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians.
The post Israel Strikes Houthis in Yemen’s Capital Sanaa: Local Media first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Next Round of Iran-US Nuclear Talks Likely to Be in Oman at Weekend
A general view of Muscat, ahead of the awaited negotiations between US and Iran, Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
A fourth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States is likely to take place over the weekend in the capital of Oman, with Iranian state media pointing to May 11 as a probable date.
Iran‘s Nournews outlet was the first to report the resumption of Iran-US nuclear talks for Sunday, citing an unnamed official.
Cautioning that the timing was not yet finalized, an Iranian source close to the negotiating team told Reuters: “The talks will take place over two days in Muscat, either on Saturday and Sunday or Sunday and Monday.”
Initially scheduled for May 3 in Rome, the fourth round of negotiations was postponed with mediator Oman citing “logistical reasons.”
Top US negotiator Steve Witkoff also said Washington was trying to hold the next round of talks this weekend, according to the news site Axios, a day after Iran‘s foreign ministry reiterated Tehran’s commitment to diplomacy with Washington.
Separately, President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday discussed the progress in talks between Iran and the United States with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, the Kremlin said.
Putin said Russia was ready to facilitate dialogue between Iran and the US to reach a fair agreement.
US President Donald Trump, who withdrew the US from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, has threatened to bomb Iran if no agreement is reached with his administration to resolve the long-standing dispute.
Western countries say Iran‘s nuclear program is geared towards producing weapons, whereas Iran insists it is purely for civilian purposes.
The post Next Round of Iran-US Nuclear Talks Likely to Be in Oman at Weekend first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Druze Near Damascus Resist Demand to Turn in Arms as Tensions Boil
Syrian security forces stand together, following deadly clashes between Sunni fighters against armed Druze residents, at the entrance of Jaramana, Syria, May 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar
Druze residents near Syria’s capital are resisting a demand by the Islamist-led government to hand in their light weapons, saying authorities have yet to address fears of new attacks by Sunni Muslim militants after days of sectarian violence.
Clashes last week pitted Sunni fighters against armed Druze residents of the town of Jaramana southeast of Damascus, later spreading to another district near the capital and then south to the predominantly Druze province of Sweida.
Such violence threatens the new government’s control of Syria, where armed gangs are attacking religious minorities and Israel is stepping up its military intervention under the banner of protecting the Druze community.
Syrian authorities have negotiated deals to allow Druze fighters to protect their own areas as enlisted members of Syria’s security forces, but this week asked that all weapons held by residents of these areas be turned into the state.
“We told them, as soon as there is a state capable of regulating its forces, we’ll have no problem handing in our weapons,” said Makram Obeid, a member of the Jaramana committee that is negotiating with the Syrian government.
Obeid said his committee had told government officials it would be better for them to focus on disarming the gangs now harassing minorities.
“It’s our right to be scared, because we saw what happened in other areas,” he told Reuters, an apparent reference to killings in March of hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority to which former President Bashar al-Assad belongs.
It was the deadliest episode of sectarian violence in years in Syria, where a 14-year war ended last December when rebels toppled Assad, who fled to Russia.
“People want to feel safe. It’s enough to have [more than] 11 years of killing, strikes, and worries,” Obeid said. “And we’re coming to another phase that we thought, with the collapse of the regime, would leave us in a much better place. But until now, we don’t feel reassured.”
Fahad Haydar, a resident of Jaramana, echoed those fears.
“These weapons that are turned against us – that’s what we’re afraid of. If those weapons get handed in, then we’ll hand in ours,” he told Reuters.
SEEKING GUARANTEES
Mowaffaq Abu Shash, a Druze cleric in Jaramana, said the Druze had already compromised enough.
“We take one step, they ask for a second. We take the second step, they ask for a third,” he said. “We ask for a guarantee that what happened on the coast will not happen to us.”
One influential Druze spiritual leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hajri, has called for international intervention to protect his community from Syria’s leaders, whom he has branded “terrorists.”
The Druze, an Arab minority sect who practice a religion originally derived from Islam, live in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and the Golan Heights. Israel has vowed to protect Syria’s Druze militarily if they face threats.
Last week’s violence was ignited by a voice recording purportedly cursing the Prophet Mohammad, which Sunni militants suspect was made by a Druze. More than a dozen people were killed in Jaramana before the violence spread west and south.
It also drew in Israel, which carried out a drone strike on what it said were fighters preparing to attack Druze in the town of Sahnaya, west of Jaramana. A Syrian security source told Reuters one member of the security forces was killed in the strike.
As the clashes reached Sweida province, Israel bombed near the presidential palace in Damascus – the clearest sign yet of its hostility towards Syria’s new leaders.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa once headed a branch of al Qaeda before renouncing ties to the group in 2016.
The post Druze Near Damascus Resist Demand to Turn in Arms as Tensions Boil first appeared on Algemeiner.com.