The prime minister of Israel is coming to Elon Musk’s defense after he was accused of making a Heil Hitler salute during the presidential inauguration parade on Monday.

Mr. Musk “is being falsely smeared,” Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote in a post on X Thursday morning. “Elon is a great friend of Israel,” he declared, noting that Mr. Musk visited Israel after the October 7 massacre and 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.”

Mr. Netanyahu added: “I thank him for this.”

The billionaire businessman was recorded making the straight-armed gesture while delivering an impassioned speech to President Trump’s supporters after the inauguration on Monday. After Mr. Musk declared to the crowd, “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured,” he appeared to touch his hand to his heart and then raise it out to the crowd. He then repeated the gesture while facing the other side of the audience. 

Democrats were quick to pounce on Mr. Musk and accuse him of intentionally making a Nazi salute. A Democratic Congresswoman from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has been an outspoken critic of Mr. Musk, even floated the idea of deporting him for it. 

Members of the Jewish community, however, have been coming out of the woodwork to pitch their support for the billionaire businessman. The president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, rebuffed the allegations levied against Mr. Musk as “absurd” and called for the public to “focus on fighting real hate, not trivializing evil.

“As someone who fought antisemitism for 40+ years, including as U.S. Ambassador to Austria during the Waldheim era, I know what Nazis look like,” Mr. Lauder shared on X on Tuesday. “@elonmusk is no Nazi — he’s a great friend of the Jewish people.” 

The Anti-Defamation League offered a similar assessment, calling Mr. Musk’s motion “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm” but “not a Nazi salute.” The group added: “In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.” 

Mr. Musk has emerged as an unlikely pro-Israel and pro-Jewish advocate in the past few years, using his platform to call out antisemitism and even buddying up with Mr. Netanyahu. Over the summer, Mr. Musk was praised by the Jewish community for attending Mr. Netanyahu’s congressional address after nearly half of congressional Democrats, including Vice President Harris, skipped the speech. 

His relationship with the Jewish community, however, has not always been smooth sailing. Two years ago Mr. Musk was accused of committing various antisemitic offenses, including a charge from the current head of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, that he wasn’t taking adequate measures to keep antisemitic content from X after he purchased the social media platform in 2022. 

The SpaceX head also found himself in hot water when he defended a post last year accusing Jews of hating white people by commenting “You have said the actual truth.” The White House denounced the comment as an “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate.” Major brands including Disney, Warner Bros, Discovery and others paused their advertising campaigns on X in retaliation. Mr. Musk accused the companies of being “evil” and said that they should not use X for marketing purposes if they are just going to “blackmail me with advertising.”

Mr. Musk eventually apologized for his comment about Jews hating white people, calling it “literally the worst and dumbest post” he had ever made. He followed up on his apology by answering Mr. Greenblatt’s request to strengthen sanctions on antisemitic content on X by announcing that users who use the terms “decolonization,” “from the river to the sea,” or other phrases that “imply genocide” would be subject to suspension. 

That same month, Mr. Musk traveled to Israel and paid a visit to an Israeli kibbutz that was ravaged during Hamas’s October 7 attack. Not long after, he flew to Poland to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau with his 3-year-old son, political commentator Ben Shapiro, and the founder of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin. While in Poland, Mr. Musk attended a conference on antisemitism at Krakow. 

Mr. Musk, meanwhile, appears to be brushing off the Nazi salute accusations. “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 quipped on X. The post has since received more than 310,000 likes and 36,000 reposts.