Netanyahu Caught In Charlie Kirk Scandal

A Newsmax interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took an unusual turn when host Greta Van Susteren asked him to respond to fringe internet theories linking Israel to the killing of conservative activist Charles “Charlie” Kirk. Van Susteren prefaced the question by calling those rumors “absurd,” but asked Netanyahu to make a statement anyway.

Netanyahu laughed before replying, calling the theories “insane,” “stupid,” and “ridiculous.” “That’s insane,” he said. “Israel also changes the orbit of the moon. Israel pushes the sun. I mean, the whole thing is not only insane, I think it’s so absurd, so stupid, and so ridiculous. You can’t believe that people are saying that.” He added that such claims are rooted in hatred: “When you hate Jews, when you hate the Jewish state, you’re willing to say anything and promote all these absurd, absurd rumors.”

He later spoke of Kirk himself, describing him as someone fighting on the “battlefield of ideas.” “Charlie Kirk said to me … ‘You have to fight the slander. These untruths, these vilifications have consequences.’ And he was right. But I’ll tell you one thing, we’re fighting on the battlefield against the terrorists and winning, and he was fighting in the battlefield of ideas, and I think he was winning.”

Trump and many others are visibly shaken by Kirk’s death. Trump called him “loved and admired by ALL, especially me,” and said “nobody understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.”

Every part of his circle seems to feel the loss. Trump said flags across the country would fly at half-staff in honor of Kirk, expressing deep sorrow and emphasizing how close Kirk was to him and his family. Conversations with friends, family members, and political allies all speak of grief and disbelief that someone so young, driven, and loyal could be taken so suddenly.