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Israel to honor Charlie Kirk with award for fighting antisemitism (apnews.com)

submitted 3 days ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/nottheonion@lemmy.ml

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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel will honor the late Charlie Kirk for his work combating antisemitism at a conference in late January, four months after the conservative activist was assassinated while speaking at an American university.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday evening that Kirk will be given an award at the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem. Several pro-Israeli leaders are expected to attend the event, among them Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

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[–] ieatpwns@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Fuck Kirk but like… didn’t he die because he started turning against Israel?

[–] Mniot@programming.dev 6 points 3 days ago

I thought it was because the "groypers"(? some US Nazi clan?) felt he was not Nazi enough. Who knows whether that means pro- or anti-Israel. I'm sure that changes day to day.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

No. He died because he got shot in the neck with a bullet at a Utah far-right pep rally.

His friend Candice Owens has been pumping out a bunch of conspiracy theories that Kirk was secretly anti-Semitic. His other friend Ben Shapiro keeps insisting Kirk was always an AIPAC loyalist. And that's created a ton of friction at the latest CPAC convention.

But there's no reason to believe Kirk had a dog in the fight one way or another. Charlie's primary goal was raising money for Republican candidates and organizing college Republicans to do free labor in exchange for invitations to the various keggers and orgies TPUSA became known for. He wasn't outspoken on Israel either way before his death. That made him a great blank slate for the various sycophants in his orbit to project their own reactionary ideology onto.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Not entirely. Kirk started slowly turning on Israel about a month before his death. Probably because all the right-wingers were leaving him and going to Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes. Grifting requires an audience to grift to. Kirk even invited some prominent anti-Israel figures and Tucker which some of his donors were not too happy about.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world -2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Anyone can fake a chat stream. And Owens is a notorious hack who will happily just make shit up for her rube base.

Publicly, Kirk was never anti-Israel.

Grifting requires an audience to grift to

In 2024, Kirk channeled $85M through his organization, largely via the Mercer and Adelson families. He was getting this windfall precisely because Tucker (their former leading conservative flak) had started drinking his own kool-aid.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Anyone can fake a chat stream

ToiletPaperUSA's show confirmed the leaked texts were real and Candace didn't fake them https://www.newsweek.com/charlie-kirk-israel-candace-owens-turning-point-10845300

Publicly, Kirk was never anti-Israel.

That's semi true but Kirk started doing some fence sitting and invited guests like Dave Smith. He also started making statements like this

https://youtube.com/shorts/pUBc7Ow9qMU

In 2024, Kirk channeled $85M through his organization, largely via the Mercer and Adelson families. He was getting this windfall precisely because Tucker (their former leading conservative flak) had started drinking his own kool-aid.

Fun fact Kirks wife snipe-approached Kirk during a holiday in Israel. The rabbit hole goes pretty deep and Kirk was very deep into the Israel lobby. But he was starting to invite some people the Israel lobby really didn't like such as Tucker and KKKlandace Owens and was starting to lose a lot of Zionist donors over it.

If you ask me whether Israel killed him I'd say no, but if after 50 years it turns out Israel actually did it I wouldn't be that surprised.