Jerusalem has asked Elon Musk’s Tesla, Inc. to submit a bid on a tender to provide electric cars for the Jewish state’s top officials, a senior Israeli government source revealed to JNS on Thursday.
“We aren’t going to bow to woke trends,” the official said about the decision to invite Tesla to submit an offer, explaining: “A car is a car is a car. And a great car is a great car is a great car.
“Teslas are great cars and we look forward to studying their bid,” the official concluded.
Since Musk took on the position on Jan. 20 of de facto head of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is spearheading efforts to cut the U.S. government’s spending and workforce, there have been at least a dozen reported incidents of vandalism against Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations.
Critics have accused Musk of performing a gesture likened to a Nazi salute at a presidential inauguration celebration in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the defense of the Tesla CEO, saying on Jan. 23 that Musk was “being falsely smeared.
“Elon is a great friend of Israel. He visited Israel after the October 7, [2023], massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” tweeted Netanyahu.
“He 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,” added the prime minister.
Musk last month suggested that the ongoing corruption trial against Netanyahu was orchestrated by the Israeli “deep state.”
Last year, Musk attended Netanyahu’s July 24 address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress at the personal invitation of the prime minister.
Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, rode in a not-yet-released Tesla Cybertruck during a September 2023 tour of a Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif.
Musk, who also owns X (Twitter) and founded SpaceX, briefed the Netanyahus “on company developments and various models,” and the couple “observed the production and assembly line for advanced electric vehicles,” according to a readout from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Israel’s Energy and Infrastructure Ministry has predicted that by 2030, there will be some 1.3 million electric vehicles on the country’s roads. By 2050, the government wants all 6 million private cars to be electric.
