Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday addressed widespread internet conspiracy theories that Israel was behind the deadly shooting of pro-Israel conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, telling a US outlet that the accusation was “insane.”
Allegations spread on X in the hours after the shooting in Utah on Wednesday, fueled by past allegations of antisemitism against Kirk, his recent comments tying Mossad to the Jeffrey Epstein case, and the rapid response to his death by Israeli politicians.
“That’s insane,” Netanyahu told Newsmax host Greta Van Susteren, adding sarcastically, “Israel also changes the orbit of the moon, Israel pushes the sun.”
“They have no limits. When you hate Jews, when you hate the Jewish state, you’re willing to say anything and promote all these absurd, absurd rumors,” he said.
‘And by the way, they’re willing to kill us all the time. Over the centuries, especially in the horrific Middle Ages, the worst things were said about Jews that you could possibly believe. We were poisoning the wells, we were drinking the blood of Christian children.’
“That continued, actually, up to the Holocaust. The Nazis said the same thing. You know, we’re carrying vermin, we’re spreading disease. And people believed it. And every time they believed it, this was a prelude to a greater and greater massacre,” he said.
After the shooting, X account Greatest Noticer, whose username is an apparent allusion to a neo-Nazi watchword, blatantly tweeted, “Charlie Kirk was assassinated by jews,” while podcast host Ryan Matta wrote, “At this point does anyone not thi[nk] Charlie Kirk was assassinated by Mossad?”
The suspect in custody in connection with Kirk’s killing is a 22-year-old from Utah, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press Friday, who named him as Tyler Robinson. The official was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“I want to say farewell to a great human being, a great champion of free speech, free debate, freedom,” Netanyahu told Newsmax on Friday. “Charlie Kirk, his loss is terrible. And we grieve for him, for his wife, Erika, for his two beautiful children.”
“I called him a few weeks ago and I said, ‘So, Charlie, why don’t you come and visit us?’ And he said, ‘Well, I’m going to, and we were going to fix a date.’ And that’s not going to take place,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu highlighted Kirk’s consistent defense of Israel at a time when international criticism of the Jewish state has grown more intense. Netanyahu read from a May letter in which Kirk wrote: “One of my greatest joys as a Christian is advocating for Israel and forming alliances to defend Judeo-Christian civilization.”
Kirk’s assassination, Netanyahu said, underscores the dangerous climate for outspoken defenders of democracy.
“They’re trying to basically snuff out democracy, snuff out free speech, kill those who speak like Charlie,” Netanyahu said. “He didn’t say bring a rifle, he said bring your arguments. I’ll defeat your arguments with facts and logic. That’s what Charlie stood for.
“And these people are the exact opposite. They speak of human rights, but they trample all human rights to the dust. And the first right that we have is the right to live. They want to kill us. They try. And I think that could have a very, very negative effect unless Americans like Israelis stand up to this and say, No way, no way, we’re not going to surrender to this barbarism and to this murderous attempt to wipe out our civilization and our freedom.”