A skilled sniper shot Charlie Kirk from a distance and killed him with a single bullet. It happened live, while his family was present and witnessed the horrifying moment. So far, the assassin has not been caught.
Who was Charlie Kirk? Just 31 years old. A husband and father of two young daughters. To call him a political activist would be an understatement. At 18, he founded Turning Point USA, the conservative youth movement in the United States, one of the most influential political forces in the country in recent decades. It revived the Republican Party. Kirk’s strategy helped Donald Trump win in 2016 and played the most decisive role in Trump’s 2024 victory. He wrote books, built a social media empire and above all loved debates. He walked campuses across America and beyond to engage with people, including those who disagreed with him, even those who hated him — all for the sake of dialogue.
Who was Charlie Kirk to me? Someone I followed for years. I used to listen to his podcast almost daily until recently. It frustrated me that he normalized Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens and their antisemitic conspiracy theories. Despite being a genuine friend of Israel and the Jewish people — one of the greatest, someone who truly understood us — I thought he was weak and caved to the fringe, unhinged corners of the antisemitic right for ratings or to “feed the crocodile.” I stopped following him and stopped listening. I even trolled him on Twitter, something I regret. Maybe I should have judged him more favorably.
There’s a saying that after death we should speak of the good, and so I now choose to believe he acted out of patience and tolerance rooted in his deep Christian faith — as well as his absolute commitment, until death, to free speech, the most important value in democracy. His absolute commitment to open dialogue with people you disagree with.
Charlie was a great friend of Israel, though he did not spare us criticism — sometimes justified, sometimes less so. He also criticized American Jewry, almost always 100 percent justified. But those were the wounds of a friend, and they were faithful.
Charlie was brave, brilliant, immensely knowledgeable, a genius in marketing, media and politics. Always focused, always respectful, even when insulted to his face. He changed reality in America. He was a freedom fighter in the full sense of the term. He was a great American and, beyond that, one of the most important forces in the struggle to save Western civilization. Kirk changed the world in his life, and I have a feeling he will change it even more in his death.
Who killed him?
I have a feeling we will never know. And if that is the case, it means either an Islamo-communist assassin from the future was sent to eliminate the brightest star in the American conservative sky before he could become president, or it was the work of a major power. China. Russia. Something of that sort, in combination with American actors who want to drag the United States further down the path to chaos and maybe civil war. I hope I am wrong and that we will discover who the assassin was — and that it will turn out to be just some lunatic with access to a sniper rifle.
Roy IddanThis murder makes me ask out loud questions I have been whispering to myself for a long time: there is a vast ideological and spiritual rift within the West. It exists in Israel as well. It is a rift that the world’s worst actors are trying to deepen and widen in order to gain more power. Is there any chance of healing it peacefully? I am not sure at all.
We are in a very dark period, and I fear it will get even darker. Be strong and good. Like Charlie, may his memory be a blessing.