And joining us now, Dr. Guy Ziv, who's a professor in the Department of Foreign Policy at American University School of International Service and an associate director of the Meltzer-Schwartzburg Center for Israel Studies, where he teaches courses on U.S.-Israel relations, the Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, and he worked in the United States Department of State on Capitol Hill and for leading non-profit

organizations that promote American involvement in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

And is the author of Why Hawks Become Doves, Shimon Peres, and Foreign Policy Change in Israel.

And his forthcoming book out soon is Netanyahu versus the Generals, the battle for Israel's future. Welcome to background

briefing, Dr. Guy, Ziv. Thanks for having me back. Well, thanks for joining us, Guy. And what did

you make of Monday's visit by Elon Musk escorted by Prime Minister Netanyahu? They toured

the kibbutz that Hamas militants attacked on October the 7th.

And, you know, of course, prior to this, there's been a lot of criticism of Elon Musk for

hosting Nazis and anti-Semitic content on X, his formerly Twitter platform that he owns personally.

And to some people, it looks like reputation washing, you know, wandering around with the Israeli Prime Minister after hosting Nazis and anti-Semites.

Yeah, well, I think you've got to look at it from a domestic political angle because

Nathan Yahoo is very unpopular these days, and he can use all the support he can get and was

hoping that this visit would shore up some support, would kind of take away from some of the more disheartening news

and developments.

And of course, the public discontent with his leadership and with having really kind of been

responsible for presiding over the largest terrorist attack in the country's history.

Well, just to point out what Musk recently said, and it was, by the way, as recent as the 15th of November on a post on X from an anti-Semite,

saying the Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of

dialectic hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them, referring

to the great replacement theory. You remember, of course, at Charlottesville, the Nazis with

their tiki torches were chanting, the Jews will not replace us. And Musk responded on X with, you have said the actual truth.

So there's nothing, that's pretty unequivocal, isn't it?

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