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Elon Musk to join Ben Shapiro and other Jewish men for live chat on antisemitism and free speech
(JTA) — Leaning into his latest controversies, Elon Musk is planning to join a bevy of Jewish men for a live chat on Thursday.
The conversation will focus on “X, anti-Semitism, and the future of free speech,” according to conservative pundit and social media personality Ben Shapiro, who announced Wednesday that Musk would join him on his “Daily Wire” podcast.
Also participating in the conversation, Shapiro said, are Rabbi Ari Lamm, an Orthodox scholar and podcaster; former Israeli politician and Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky; an unnamed representative of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an antisemitism watchdog; attorney and political commentator Alan Dershowitz; Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chair of the European Jewish Association; Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the author and onetime Republican congressional candidate; Rabbi Manis Friedman, a Chabad rabbi with a popular YouTube channel; former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin; and Asher Gold, and Israel-based publicist.
“And a Hava Nagila sing-off!” Musk tweeted as he shared Shapiro’s announcement.
The lineup drew applause from Shapiro’s fans on X. “This is gonna be awesome!” Libs of TikTok, a right-wing account operated by an Orthodox Jewish woman, posted.
It also elicited questions about why no women or progressives had been invited to the conversation. No non-Orthodox rabbis were on the list, either.
“Not 1 progressive voice. Not that I agree with them, but talking free speech w/o including them betrays the not-so-hidden agenda,” Andres Spokoiny, president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network, tweeted. “And why not invite Greenblatt? I hope the great @AriLamm can be the voice of reason & moderation here.”
Spokoiny was referring to Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, which musk has attacked in a series of posts this month. Musk drew allegations of antisemitism after he threatened to sue the ADL, the antisemitism watchdog, for promoting an ad boycott that he said was causing massive financial loss to his business. The group had called for the boycott after Musk acquired the company and removed guardrails against hate speech. Amid his campaign against the nonprofit, Musk interacted with white supremacist accounts criticizing the ADL.
Greenblatt told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency earlier this month that he continued to view Musk as a “great innovator” who was unfortunately engaging with antisemites on the platform that he owns and renamed from Twitter.
More than 120 Jewish activists, largely on the left and center, this week called on advertisers and app stores to drop X over the hate speech that has spiked on the platform since Musk acquired it.
Musk himself has insisted that he is “pro free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind,” and X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, recently posted a company statement rejecting antisemitism. Last week, Musk hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a live chat, during which Netanyahu praised his stated commitment to fighting antisemitism and encouraged him to continue fighting anti-Jewish bigotry.
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The post Elon Musk to join Ben Shapiro and other Jewish men for live chat on antisemitism and free speech appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.