Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons on Saturday sent out a tweet to his more than 3 million followers in which he lamented the death of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, only to retract it later, saying he had confused Sharon with his longtime friend President Shimon Peres.

Simmons’ original tweet read, “R.I.P. my friend Ariel Sharon great pleasure working with you..special occasions your work to promote tolerance was inspiring.”

Shortly afterward, after being criticized by some followers and asked about the nature of his work with Sharon, Simmons retracted his comment, tweeting, “on stair master…a little light headed. confused ariel sharon with longtime friend, shimon peres. sadly sharon promoted war, not peace.”

on stair master…a little light headed. confused ariel sharon with longtime friend, shimon peres. sadly sharon promoted war, not peace.

— Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) January 11, 2014

Many of his followers further questioned Simmons’ friendship with Peres, considering that they don’t particularly resemble one another. “Totally understand, man. Us Jews all look alike,” he sarcastically tweeted. The original tweet and responses have been deleted from his Twitter feed. On Sunday morning, Simmons tweeted about the Foundation of Ethnic Understanding, which promotes Muslim-Jewish relations and Black-Jewish relations.

Last year, I spoke at Shimon Peres’ conference in Israel about our work at the @FFEUny to bring Jews and Muslims together in peace

— Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) January 12, 2014

Very proud of the work, as Chairman of @FFEUny, we do around the world to promote a more peaceful relationship between Muslims and Jews…

— Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) January 12, 2014

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)