According to Mediaite, Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, put forth a new and convoluted conspiracy theory during the PBD Podcast last Thursday. Notably, Kirk failed to foresee the former president’s reconciliatory stance toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Expressing skepticism regarding the recent attack on Israel, Kirk insisted, “I’ve been to Israel many times, the whole country is a fortress. When I first heard this story, I still have the same gut instinct that I did initially: I find this very hard to believe. I’ve been to that Gaza border, you cannot go 10 feet without running into a 19-year-old with an AR-15 or an automatic machine gun that’s an IDF soldier, right?”
He further delved into Israeli politics, highlighting the recent civil unrest within the country. Kirk emphasized that Netanyahu’s government had faced intense opposition and protests over the past nine months due to disputes about the balance of power within the Israeli political system.
While distancing himself from direct allegations, Kirk raised questions about the possibility of a stand-down order during the attack, questioning the six-hour duration of the event and suggesting that there might have been government involvement. He emphasized the proximity of locations within Israel, indicating his disbelief in the prolonged timeline of the incident.
Interestingly, Kirk’s remarks coincided with Trump’s earlier criticisms of Netanyahu for purportedly not being adequately prepared for the attack, as well as for having allegedly “let us down” during the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
Coincidentally, Trump’s subsequent expression of solidarity with Israel and Netanyahu on Truth Social, posting #IStandWithIsrael #IStandWithBibi, occurred a day after Kirk’s podcast appearance. Notably, despite Kirk’s earlier skepticism, it was evident that the attack would likely mark the end of Netanyahu’s political career, given the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, a fact that Kirk had previously mocked.
The whole country is surveilled and so let me just kinda go through this. We don’t talk about Israeli politics very often and most Americans don’t know this. The last nine months Israel was on the brink of civil war, it’s not an exaggeration. This judicial stuff, there were hundreds of thousands of Israelis taking to the streets because Bibi Netanyahu is basically redefining the Israeli constitution, that’s not an exaggeration, right? He said the judicial branch has too much power, there were protests planned this week against Netanyahu where they anticipated tens of thousands of people to take to the streets. That’s all gone, Patrick. Netanyahu now has an emergency government and a mandate to lead.
I’m not, I’m not willing to say, to go so far to say that Netanyahu knew or there was intelligence here, but I think some questions need to be asked. Was there a stand down order? Was there a stand down order? Six hours, I don’t believe it. Israel’s the size of New Jersey. When I took a helicopter ride from Jerusalem to the Gaza border, it’s 45 minutes, six hours, they’re livestreaming the killing of Jews. Did somebody in the government say stand down? That is a legitimate, non-conspiracy question.
