The Questions Charlie Kirk Asked That Nobody Answered

On October 7, 2023, Hamas fighters crossed into southern Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people, most of them civilians at a music festival and in nearby kibbutzim. The world reacted with horror, as it should have. But within days, a small number of people began asking questions that most of the political class refused to touch. How could this happen at the most heavily guarded border in the world, patrolled by armed 19-year-old soldiers every few feet, surveilled constantly, in a country the size of New Jersey? And who stood to benefit?

Charlie Kirk was one of the first to raise these questions publicly, five days after the attack, on a podcast. He pointed out that Israel had been on the brink of civil war over Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial overhaul, with hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting. Netanyahu faced political extinction. Then October 7 happened, and suddenly he had an emergency government and a mandate to lead. Kirk asked the obvious question: "Was there a stand-down order?" He didn't claim to know the answer. He said it was a legitimate, non-conspiracy question. He also predicted, correctly, that the Israeli government would use the attack as a pretext to ethnically cleanse Gaza.