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IBM pulls its ads from Twitter/X after Elon Musk calls an antisemitic post the ‘actual truth’
(JTA) — IBM pulled $1 million in ads from X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, after owner Elon Musk called an antisemitic post the “absolute truth,” his most direct endorsement of antisemitism since he started sparring with watchdogs who call out hate speech.
And the tech giant may not be the only one to cut its ad spending. The New York Times reported Thursday that ad salespeople for X were fielding questions about the post, and other white nationalist comments, from other major advertisers.
Musk was replying Wednesday to a user on X who wrote, “Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest s— now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities [they] support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.”
“You have said the actual truth,” Musk replied.
The post appeared to endorse the “Great Replacement Theory,” which posits that Jews are orchestrating the replacement of white populations in Western countries via the mass immigration of people of color. The theory motivated the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, and has inspired other mass shootings.
Musk’s endorsement of the post comes as reports of antisemitic harassment and violence are spiking during Israel’s war with Hamas.
IBM released a statement to the Financial Times saying it had “suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation.”
Also troubling for advertisers are reports from a liberal watchdog, Media Matters, that their ads were appearing adjacent to posts by antisemites and white supremacists. On Thursday, Musk called Media Matters an “evil organization.”
Musk, known as the CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla and SpaceX, the space travel firm, also canceled a scheduled appearance at the CEO component of the Asia Pacific Economic Coalition now meeting in San Francisco. He and organizers blamed a last-minute scheduling conflict.
Linda Yaccarino, whom Musk hired earlier this year as X’s CEO, after saying he would be hands-off on the platform, said in a post, without referring to her boss, that “discrimination should STOP.”
“X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination,” she wrote. “There’s no place for it anywhere in the world — it’s ugly and wrong.”
Musk has flirted with antisemitic imagery since he took over the platform about a year ago. He attacked billionaire liberal philanthropist and hedge funder George Soros, a frequent target of antisemitism as someone who “hates humanity” and has repeatedly attacked and threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League, at one point blaming the antisemitism watchdog for the proliferation of antisemitism.
In a response to his “actual truth” post, Musk again took aim at the ADL.
“The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel,” he wrote. “This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat. It is not right and needs to stop.”
Jewish groups. including the ADL, said Musk’s latest foray was dangerous.
“Elon Musk’s agreement with a user promoting elements of the Great Replacement theory isn’t the ‘truth’,” the American Jewish Committee said on the platform. “It is the deadliest antisemitic conspiracy theory in modern U.S. history and motivated the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.”
A letter by more than 100 Jewish activists called out Musk for “spreading the kind of antisemitism that leads to massacres.”
Musk is not the only conservative influencer who is now amplifying the “Great Replacement Theory” and singling out Jews. Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative campus movement, defended Musk in an appearance on his streamed talkshow.
“I don’t like generalizations, not every Jewish person believes that,” Kirk said. “It is true that some of the largest financiers of left wing anti-white causes have been Jewish Americans. They went all in on ‘woke’ and it wasn’t just ADL. It was some of the top Jewish organizations in the country that have done that.”
Tucker Carlson, the top-rated talkshow host fired earlier this year by Fox News Channel, joined Candace Owens, another far-right influencer, in claiming that wealthy Jews were paying to promote anti-white movements. Owens and Carlson were irked that Jewish donors were withdrawing funding from universities that have been the scenes of antisemitic harassment since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
“You were calling my children immoral for their skin color. You paid for that,” Carlson said on his streamed show Wednesday on X. “So why shouldn’t I be mad at you?”
Both have gone to bat for antisemitic statements in the past. Carlson endorsed the Great Replacement theory on his Fox show in 2021. Owens defended the rapper Kanye West during his stream of antisemitic comments last year.
Carlson and Kirk are both close to former President Donald Trump, who also has become more explicit in recent months in singling out Jews, sharing content suggesting that Jews who do not vote for him are a threat to the country.
The flooding of social media with antisemitic content featured in a call that the New York Times reported Friday between executives of the short video platform, TikTok, and Jewish celebrities.
“What is happening at TikTok is it is creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis,” said Sacha Baron Cohen, the actor and comedian who was among more than a dozen celebrities on the call. “Shame on you.”
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The post IBM pulls its ads from Twitter/X after Elon Musk calls an antisemitic post the ‘actual truth’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really?
JNS.org – If I asked you to name the most famous line in the Bible, what would you answer? While Shema Yisrael (“Hear O’Israel”) might get many votes, I imagine that the winning line would be “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). Some religions refer to it as the Golden Rule, but all would agree that it is fundamental to any moral lifestyle. And it appears this week in our Torah reading, Kedoshim.
This is quite a tall order. Can we be expected to love other people as much as we love ourselves? Surely, this is an idealistic expectation. And yet, the Creator knows us better than we know ourselves. How can His Torah be so unrealistic?
The biblical commentaries offer a variety of explanations. Some, like Rambam (Maimonides), say that the focus should be on our behavior, rather than our feelings. We are expected to try our best or to treat others “as if” we genuinely love them.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, in his classic text called the Tanya, argues that the actual feelings of love are, in fact, achievable provided that we focus on a person’s spirituality rather than how they present themselves physically. If we can put the soul over the body, we can do it.
Allow me to share the interpretation of the Ramban (Nachmanides), a 13th-century Torah scholar from Spain. His interpretation of the verses preceding love thy neighbor is classic and powerful, yet simple and straightforward.
“Do not hate your brother in your heart. You shall rebuke him, but do not bear a sin because of him” by embarrassing him in public. “Do not take revenge, and do not bear a grudge against your people. You shall love your fellow as yourself, I am God” (Leviticus 19:17-18).
What is the connection between these verses? Why is revenge and grudge-bearing in the same paragraph as love your fellow as yourself?
A careful reading shows that within these two verses are no less than six biblical commandments. But what is their sequence all about, and what is the connection between them?
The Ramban explains it beautifully, showing how the sequence of verses is deliberate and highlighting the Torah’s profound yet practical advice on how to maintain healthy relationships.
Someone wronged you? Don’t hate him in your heart. Speak to him. Don’t let it fester until it bursts, and makes you bitter and sick.
Instead, talk it out. Confront the person. Of course, do it respectfully. Don’t embarrass anyone in public, so that you don’t bear a sin because of them. But don’t let your hurt eat you up. Communicate!
If you approach the person who wronged you—not with hate in your heart but with respectful reproof—one of two things will happen. Either he or she will apologize and explain their perspective on the matter. Or that it was a misunderstanding and will get sorted out between you. Either way, you will feel happier and healthier.
Then you will not feel the need to take revenge or even to bear a grudge.
Here, says the Ramban, is the connection between these two verses. And if you follow this advice, only then will you be able to observe the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor. If you never tell him why you are upset, another may be completely unaware of his or her wrongdoing, and it will remain as a wound inside you and may never go away.
To sum up: Honest communication is the key to loving people.
Now, tell me the truth. Did you know that not taking revenge is a biblical commandment? In some cultures in Africa, revenge is a mitzvah! I’ve heard radio talk-show hosts invite listeners to share how they took “sweet revenge” on someone, as if it’s some kind of accomplishment.
Furthermore, did you know that bearing a grudge is forbidden by biblical law?
Here in South Africa, people refer to a grudge by its Yiddish name, a faribel. In other countries, people call it a broiges. Whatever the terminology, the Torah states explicitly: “Thou shalt not bear a grudge!” Do not keep a faribel, a broiges or resentment of any kind toward someone you believe wronged you. Talk to that person. Share your feelings honestly. If you do it respectfully and do not demean the other’s dignity, then it can be resolved. Only then will you be able to love your fellow as yourself.
May all our grudges and feelings of resentment toward others be dealt with honestly and respectfully. May all our grudges be resolved as soon as possible. Then we will all be in a much better position to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The post Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday dismissed as nonsensical the report that President Donald Trump would endorse Palestinian statehood during his tour to the Persian Gulf this week.
“This report is nonsense,” Huckabee harrumphed on his X account, blasting the Jerusalem Post as needing better sourced reporting. “Israel doesn’t have a better friend than the president of the United States.”
Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The leader’s first trip overseas since he took office comes as Trump seeks the Gulf countries’ support in regional conflicts, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and curbing Iran’s advancing nuclear program.
However, reports citing administration insiders claimed that Trump has also set his sights on the ambitious goal of expanding the Abraham Accords. These agreements, initially signed in 2020, normalized relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The accords are widely held to be among the most important achievements of the first Trump administration.
The post ‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Unless significant progress is registered in Sunday’s round of nuclear talks with Iran, the US will consider putting the military option back on the table, sources close to US envoy Steve Witkoff told i24NEWS.
American and Iranian representatives voiced optimism after the previous talks that took place in Oman and Rome, saying there was a friendly atmosphere despite the two countries’ decades of enmity.
However the two sides are not believed to have thrashed out the all-important technical details, and basic questions remain.
The source has also underscored the significance of the administration’s choice of Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director, as the lead representative in the nuclear talks’ technical phases.
Anton is “an Iran expert and someone who knows how to cut a deal with Iran,” the source said, saying that the choice reflected Trump’s desire to secure the deal.
The post US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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