Netanyahu Meets with Pro-Israel Influencers in New York, Describes Social Media as a "Weapon" for Israel
He's literally saying the quiet part out loud.
This article originally appeared on Antiwar.com and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Dave DeCamp
In the meeting, Netanyahu said the plan to put TikTok under the control of US companies was very important for Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with “pro-Israel influencers” after his speech at the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday, his office said in a statement on Sunday.
Netanyahu’s office said that he spoke with the influencers “about the challenges in the new era, and the public diplomacy efforts and the influence of the social networks on the discourse for and against Israel.”
During the meeting, Netanyahu was asked what should be done about Israel potentially losing support from Evangelical Christians in the US, and he pointed to social media, which he called a “tool of battle,” and cited a plan for TikTok to be put under the control of US companies.
“What we have to do is secure that part of the base of our support in the United States, that is being challenged systematically … How do we fight back? Our influencers, I think you should also talk to them if you have the chance,” Netanyahu said.
“And secondly, we’re going to have to use the tools of battle. The weapons change over time … we have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefield on which we’re engaged, and the most important ones are on social media.”
The Israeli leader described the TikTok plan as the “most important purchase that is going on.” Under the plan approved by President Trump, one of the companies that will have a major stake in TikTok and control the algorithm is Oracle, which is owned by Larry Ellison, an extremely pro-Israel billionaire and major private donor to the Israeli military.
“TikTok, TikTok, and I hope it goes through because it could be extremely consequential,” Netanyahu said, adding that the other major social media platform he is concerned about is X, formerly Twitter. The Israeli leader described Elon Musk, the owner of X, as a “friend.”
“We have to talk to Elon. He’s not an enemy, he’s a friend. You should talk to him. Now, if we can get those two things, we can get a lot, and I can go on about other things, but that’s not the point right now. We have to fight the fight. Give direction to the Jewish people, and give direction to our non-Jewish friends, or those who could be our friends,” Netanyahu added.
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Some of the dumbest words I've ever heard from a political leader.
Bibi doesn't seem to realize how low and precarious Israel's general reputation is right now on the American right, nor how his statement (which crudely and shamelessly discloses what we all already assumed they were doing in part) adds fuel to the fire.
I think the new right focus on Israel and the Israeli lobby is largely crazed, and I think it sows a division which distracts from the dividing which SHOULD be roiling conservativism now but isn't, that about the continued Suppression of the Covidvax harms story by top "conservative" outlets and leaders.
But with crap like this coming from Bibi...