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They Spent Years Justifying Violence — Now They Mourn Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk speaking at the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2025. Photo: Brian Snyder via Reuters Connect
The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk sent shockwaves across the world. Tributes poured in from world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Kirk was gunned down at a campus event in Utah — a chilling reminder of the growing threat of political violence in America. His death has already sparked debates about the state of free speech, the dangers facing polarizing figures, and the country’s ongoing battle over gun rights.
Those discussions may feel inevitable in the wake of such a murder. But there is one aspect of Kirk’s legacy that deserves special recognition — especially from those who care about Israel and the Jewish people.
For years, Kirk stood on the front lines of America’s campus culture wars, fearlessly challenging lies about the Jewish State. He didn’t shy away from hostile rooms. He didn’t dilute his message. He made Israel’s case where it most needed to be heard — in classrooms, lecture halls, and student auditoriums where anti-Israel narratives are too often allowed to flourish unchallenged.
Kirk’s political views divided many. But his unwavering defense of Israel, his refusal to allow falsehoods to go unopposed, and his willingness to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Jewish students under fire are something that deserves appreciation. He was, in every sense, a friend of the Jewish State.
And yet, in the hours since his murder, tributes have emerged from some of the very voices who bear responsibility for poisoning the public sphere with anti-Israel hatred.
Figures who once called to “globalize the intifada” — rhetoric that glorifies violence against Jews and Israelis — now strike a mournful tone over Kirk’s death. Journalists, activists, and politicians who have trafficked in antisemitic tropes or winked at violence against Zionists are suddenly against political violence when it takes the life of a man they spent years vilifying.
Take, for example, Democratic nominee for New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He has infamously refused to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” — a phrase that openly romanticizes violent uprising against Jews and Israelis. Only after fierce backlash did Mamdani claim he would avoid the phrase in the future. Yet in the immediate hours after Kirk’s murder, Mamdani rushed to X to declare himself “horrified,” insisting that “political violence has no place in our country.”
I’m horrified by the shooting of Charlie Kirk at a college event in Utah.
Political violence has no place in our country.
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) September 10, 2025
Similarly, Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) — who has smeared Jewish students as “pro-genocide” and repeatedly trafficked in antisemitic tropes — joined the chorus. “Political violence is absolutely unacceptable and indefensible,” she wrote, urging Americans to “pray for no more lives being lost to gun violence.” The same politician who has vilified Jewish students for their Zionism now demands the moral high ground on political violence.
And then there is former MSNBC commentator Mehdi Hasan. He used Kirk’s death not to reflect on his own rhetoric, but to settle personal scores — pointing out that Kirk had once called him “a lunatic” and “a prostitute,” and had demanded his deportation. Hasan sought to appear magnanimous: “Nothing, nothing, justifies killing him, or robbing his kids of their dad.”
But this is the same Hasan who has defended the chants for an “intifada,” insisted it is merely “an uprising,” and said Israelis are supportive of genocide. Earlier this year, he was accused of mocking the September 11 terror attacks with a tweet reading: “Make American Planes Crash Again.”
Other tributes were posted and reposted by Democrat former Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO), creative director and activist Alana Hadid, and others — all figures with long records of demonizing those who disagree with them politically.
Charlie Kirk was *murdered* by a sniper. He did not simply “die.”
Like Israeli and Jewish victims of terror, add Kirk to the list of murder victims @nytimes cannot sympathize with, therefore treating their deaths with passive headlines. pic.twitter.com/GzTSWWzcRj
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 11, 2025
On the other end of the political spectrum, Candace Owens considered herself to be a friend of Kirk’s. Owens, however, is a serial spreader of antisemitic and anti-Israel incitement. In a series of short, heartbroken tweets, Owens begged her followers to “pray” for Kirk and his family. But while she may be emphasizing her utter shock, Owens fails to recognize that her own brand of hateful and conspiratorial rhetoric about the pro-Israel community and Jewish people is a net contributor to an atmosphere of encouraging political violence, irrespective of whether it comes from the left or the right.
The hypocrisy is staggering. You cannot spend years mainstreaming rhetoric that endorses violence against Jews, Zionists, and pro-Israel voices — and then act shocked when that same rhetoric metastasizes into real bloodshed.
Violent language toward Jews and Israel has become disturbingly normalized in American discourse. Now, some of its loudest promoters want to draw neat moral lines when it suits them. But their sudden appeals to civility ring hollow.
This commentary on Charlie Kirk’s murder is not about speculating on motive. It is about the danger of legitimizing rhetoric that dehumanizes opponents and flirts with violence. Words have consequences. And those who excuse or glorify violence against Israel cannot wash their hands when that culture of hostility inevitably corrodes the wider political sphere.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.