121 Comments
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BeauregardIV's avatar

Glad I subscribe. You will take A LOT of crap for publishing this Ken, I'll do my small part in comment sections to have your back.

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Ken Klippenstein's avatar

not looking forward to it lol

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lee levin's avatar

Expect lots of 2am crank calls. I know from personal experience when I was active in New Jewis Agenda.

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BJ's avatar

"Be afraid. Be very afraid." Spoken by Geena Davis in David Cronenberg's 1986 film The Fly

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Lori's avatar

Ken maybe another income stream is some official "reply guy" merch

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Clif Brown's avatar

Thank you for publishing this. He certainly shows knowledge of the history of the situation. What is strange to me is that this act will be denounced as one done by a crazy person, yet the slaughter in Gaza of tens of thousands goes on without end as the world watches. War itself is considered a sane thing. Let's remember that Henry Kissinger was considered by many in DC as a very admirable statesman. We are a strange species.

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X K's avatar

Just as with the near-immediate falsehoods of rapes and beheaded babies emanating from the genocidal entity’s Office of Hasbara, so too has it swung into action on the two Israeli embassy staffers shot in DC. Of course there has been the de rigueur turning on of the antisemitism fire hose, but also getting government officials (well, can’t really call it “government,” as that now means Trump henchmen and -women) to spout the trope.

Case in point, Pam Bondi on CNN this morning speaking to reporters in Washington, DC, from the scene of the fatal shooting said, “No parents should have to be called and told that their children were violently murdered leaving a religious event at the Jewish Museum.”

It’s not my faith, but a Jewish religious event? on a Wednesday? at a museum? Time to corroborate. Even mainstream ABC News got it right: “During a press conference on Thursday morning, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar… said the pair were attending a Jewish conference of the American Jewish Committee when they were gunned down ‘in a horrific terrorist attack.’”

Well, I suppose technically correct, the AJC is part of the religion of Zionism.

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Clif Brown's avatar

On the very first day of my vigil in front of the synagogue, I displayed a sign that read "Zionism is NOT Judaism", the first being a political movement and the second a religion. But your writing, "the religion of Zionism" is true in that the hatred of the Palestinians is as deeply held as the beliefs of any religion. I see/hear this daily as I receive pure hatred from Zionists, shouted or with obscene gestures, when my Palestinian flag is seen. It is kneejerk automatic. I know you subscribe to my substack, so you will get the details there on what happened today at the entrance to Northwestern U. I have a sign I will draw up tonight that I will wear tomorrow. It will read "2 murdered in DC: HORROR. 100 murdered in Gaza daily: REAL ESTATE OPPORTUNITY"

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X K's avatar

Now the FBI is (has been directed to get) in on the act, this from the NYT:

"Live Updates: Slaying at Jewish Museum Was Targeted Antisemitic Violence, F.B.I. Says

"The killing of two Israeli Embassy aides was condemned by U.S. officials. The suspect, from Chicago, had a history of pro-Palestinian activism, including a social media statement scheduled to post after the shooting."

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter's performance can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AxeAHw24Jc.

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X K's avatar

There's an update from the Detroit Jewish News: "The male victim was identified as Yaron Lischinsky. His final post on social media was a repost of a message condemning the United Nations’ false claim that 14,000 infants in Gaza were facing imminent starvation, labeling it a modern-day blood libel."

See https://www.thejewishnews.com/news/two-israeli-embassy-staffers-shot-dead-outside-jewish-museum-in-dc/article_50d1c898-95bb-4c6c-a717-5cb506a6bdd0.html

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Tankster's avatar

It is a false statement and modern-day blood libel. You conveniently left out the 48-hour time frame, which is impossible. Where in the world would 14,000 infants die in 48 hours? Nowhere. It was false and serves as yet another excuse for those of you engaging in DARVO to attack the victims. If Mexico had attacked the US and killed 45,000 people and kidnapped 12,000, we would be carpet bombing Mexico City. Change my mind.

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X K's avatar
4dEdited

1) You could have checked the link I provided to an item from the Detroit Jewish News from which the 14,000 figure comes, and then possibly researched it further, but evidently you didn’t bother to do that.

2) As you appear only to react in a self-righteous, knee-jerk, opinionated fashion rather than with facts, you smugly wait for others to do the work for you. As such, you may wish to check this link https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/may/23/Gaza-UN-babies-48-hours/ concerning not only the 14,000 babies, but also “A May 12 IPC report said nearly 71,000 children under the age of 5 in Gaza are expected to experience acute malnourishment from April 2025 to March 2026.”

3) Israel is long-practiced in the cynical, dark arts of DARVO as part of its hasbara strategy, see here https://hydeaway.medium.com/israel-has-lost-the-propaganda-war-hasbara-and-political-lobbies-have-been-exposed-a3a4f19672a6 here https://esraahossameldin.medium.com/israeli-darvo-f601872635f9

and here https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/the-art-of-deception-how-israel-uses-hasbara-to-whitewash-its-crimes-46775.

4) As Israeli surveillance of the full range of media outlets is quite sophisticated and pervasive and undoubtedly has Ken Klippenstein in its sights, this coupled with your use of the stock hasbara trope “It is a false statement and modern-day blood libel” lead one to conclude reasonably that you are yourself a foot soldier in this “nefarious enterprise” as the familiar and warranted epithet applies.

5) This should be more than enough to change your mind, but it won’t, as your indoctrination is far too ingrained to allow any fact- and reality-based refutation to your mission-focused obsession to defend the genocidal entity at any cost, regardless of what is true.

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Tankster's avatar

So what's the tally on those 14,000 dead babies? Are they being buried? Where's the follow-up coverage? Oh yeah, right. It was spun from whole cloth. Sorry to engage in whataboutism, but what did you write as Assad killed 500,000 Muslims, and forced 1.5 million into Turkey? What have you written about the mass starvation in South Sudan? What about Boko Haram slaughtering Christians? You save your selective outrgae for a little pissant country like Israel, when no Muslim countries care about them except maybe Houthis, Egypt's border is 50x more fortified to bottle them in than Israel. You are Karl Rove's perfect example of a person who no longer lives in a reality-based world. The truth is what you imagine it is, or are told by the Gaza Ministry of Health.

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Tankster's avatar

I did check the link. You know you are a Kuffir and must convert or die. Good luck Chumley.

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Kevan Hudson's avatar

Appreciate your consistency in publishing source documents.

No partisan team playing.

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Ken Klippenstein's avatar

This one made me sad. I sympathize with critics of the war. These killings won't do that cause any favors.

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Dominic Felipe Blum-Gutierrez's avatar

I'm actually surprised this is the first time we've seen this type of direct violent action against Israeli state employees in the US given how aware people are of the genocide and how readily available firearms are. I do think this is going to be used to make all that call for an end to genocide and apartheid be seen as pariahs which is somewhat ironic given many people in that movement seemingly joined due to their opposition to violence of any kind.

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BJ's avatar

I respectfully see it as the exact opposite - everyone hates the Jews and wants to kill us. The timing is a typically cynical manipulation of public opinion.

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Todd's avatar

Right-wingers and ignoramuses hate the Jews; the rest of us who give a damn hate the Zionists. There's a difference, pal.

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BJ's avatar

Elementary, but that's how it's deliberately framed . . . because it works. I live in NY and they have been singing that tune for generations because ignorant people have bought into it. It works and it sells, They hate ALL JEWS! The sympathy card!

Same held true for the 9-11 theme song, "They hate our Freedom" and people bought into that narrative as well. Because it sells.

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Todd's avatar

Sure, but that's why it's necessary to push back every single time that right-wing canard is hauled out: so that other people who don't know get the true message.

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Jahan's avatar

Maybe genocidal maniacs will be afraid to leave their homes? Feels like a Luigi Mangione moment

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Lori's avatar

Wow....I'm seeing the whole story here first.

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Guy's avatar

Ken, I applaud your courage and journalistic principles in obtaining and publishing this document. This is what all who call themselves journalists should do. The people need and has a right to have this unfiltered information in order to help come to their own conclusions about this important and newsworthy event, including assessing what may have motivated the apparent perpetrator. Withholding or selectively releasing this information cannot be justified on journalistic, privacy or Constitutional grounds. Not giving the public prompt access to the full text leaves it vulnerable to those seeking to impose their own agendas and narratives on how the public sees and reacts to the perpetrator and his motivations. The public depends on good journalists like you to help it to avoid this kind of predictable "spin" from those on all sides who may be interested in exerting "narrative control."

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Mary Pat Rowan's avatar

GUY,

Thank you, you said it all!

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Harry's avatar

His emphasis on denying impunity should be lost on no one.

Indeed, the entire legal concept of "genocide" was first conceived by Raphael Lemkin in response to his witnessing the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian for the assassination of Talaat Pasha, one of the architects of the Armenian Genocide.

As Lemkin observed, the lack of an international mechanism to bring such criminals to justice led inevitably to vigilante justice.

He spent his life creating the postwar institutions that were intended to uphold international humanitarian law and prevent genocides, like the one we are witnessing in Gaza, from ever happening again, or at least to prevent the victims and those sympathetic to them from having to seek redress outside the law.

It should be no surprise then, that in light of the abject failure of those institutions to respond to the crisis in Gaza, we are witnessing an inevitable regression to vigilante justice.

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Bob Fett's avatar

I don't disagree with a single thing he wrote here. But if he thinks the reaction to evincing anti-Zionist opinions before this was bad...welp...

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Tom Krausse's avatar

Ken: Thank you for publishing Elias Rodriguez’s manifesto pertaining to the deaths of two Israeli citizens by him and the reason they were shot by him to shine a light on what is happening in Gaza right now to Palestinian victims being murdered by the Israeli Military. The Gaza Strip rightfully belongs to the Palestinians dating back to 1948 when Israel took control of the strip of land away from the Palestinians and displaced this population. This property belongs to the Palestinians state and always has belonged to them. Israel needs to be stopped at all costs and must give back control of the land that they have illegally taken ! Thank you for shining a light on this conflict and give the public access to such manifestos and original source material. Finally, thank you for following the lead of Daniel Ellsberg in 1968 when he published the “Pentagon Papers” in the New York Times exposing the military cover -up happening in the Vietnam War at the time. Great job, Ken

!

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Jon Weisberger's avatar

Israel didn’t take control of Gaza in 1948, it was 1967. And Sarah Milgrim was not Israeli, she was an American Jew. Maybe should have more than a superficial grasp on your subject before starting your ugly, self-righteous “at all costs” - as if *you* were paying some cost - pontificating.

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Susan Becraft's avatar

Thank you for publishing this, Ken. You will get heat, I’m sure, but you continue to do what journalists are supposed to do - bring us the truth. What immediately struck me is that these aren’t the words of a lunatic or even a fanatic. I have said much the same thing since the genocide began. While I would never resort to violence, I understand the feelings of helplessness, futility and anger. This is the worst thing I’ve seen in my 82 years.

But there will be hell to pay for these shootings, I fear.

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BJ's avatar

Sue, will this be another Luigi Mangione? I can't wait to see how this unfolds.

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Susan Becraft's avatar

I see an updated Patriot Act, but your point about Luigi Mangione is spot on, imo.

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Peter Murphy's avatar

As Chad Loder remarked on Bluesky:

"We've entered the anni di piombo. It's going to suck really bad."

Years of Lead: the political violence in Italy from the 60s to 80s.

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Tom's avatar
May 22Edited

Years of Lead were also done with heavy American assistance. Operation Gladio and the "Strategy of Tension"....

https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-031-05750-2_65-1

Uncle Scam has his bloody hands in virtually every modern atrocity.

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Todd's avatar

Mmmmaybe . . . .

From what I've read and heard about that period in Italian history, this incident is nothing.

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Peter Murphy's avatar

It's a bit like saying: "From what I've read and heard about that period in Italian history, the killing of Brian Thompson last year is nothing". If we are at the start of a wave of far-left, far-right and stochastic terrorism (god forbid!), it has to start somewhere. Maybe Anni Di Piombo Numero Due will be backdated to last year.

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Todd's avatar

First, the only kind of left that has enough numbers to put up a fight is the liberal left, and they simply won't do anything remotely like the Italian communists and socialists did or were trying to do. Second, while there are enough fascists and fascist-enablers in North America, they're not exactly hardened by war, not like the lot the Italian and American governments used back then for their killers. Lastly, if you're worried about stochastic terrorism, you're a bit behind the curve: that's been going on for a while now. Sure, it can get worse, but I think it's more likely it will get overwhelming worse for anyone on the left and be over with quickly. Bystanders getting caught in crossfires will be rare simply because the fight will be so one-sided.

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Peter Murphy's avatar

Todd: as the assassination of Shinzo Abe should show us: you don't need large numbers of political partisans to "put up a fight". All you need is a lot of people with access to guns (off the shelf, bespoke or handmade) and a lot of people whose sense of grievance and outrage outweighs any sense of ethics or belief in the system to make things better. America has always had a lot of the first, but has really been building up the second at a rate of knots this year.

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Todd's avatar

You just described the American Right since about the 70s; do you really believe those to the left of American liberals are as numerous and/or well armed?

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Tom's avatar
8dEdited

WTF are you even on about at this point? Do you or don't you accept that the Italian communists/socialists were not the perpetrators of 99% of the violence attributed to them as part of Operation Gladio and the "strategy of tension"?

"YES" or "NO" question, Todd.

You always argue in this mealy mouthed non-committal way that is so hyper annoying. What the FUCK are you **ACTUALLY** saying? God damn, I've been on the Internet since the mid 90s and it's been a long time since I've encountered such a weasel that makes his own arguments so intentionally hard to pin down.

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Todd's avatar

Let's start with this:

"a weasel that makes his own arguments so intentionally hard to pin down."

Welcome to an attempt to describe What Really Goes On, asshole. You don't like it? Fuck you and your right-wing terror of complexity!

"Do you or don't you accept that the Italian communists/socialists were not the perpetrators of 99% of the violence attributed to them as part of Operation Gladio and the 'strategy of tension'? "

No, I don't believe the Italian left were the perps you make them out to be, you right-wing fuck! Fascist scum like you were kept around and also integrated into the pigs (not that they had that far to go: plenty were likely already in there); their violence was normalized.

The question at hand is whether or not what happened then is what's going on now or will happen in the near future. I doubt that's the case, and all I get in reply is vapid shit like "Oh! It all starts with one guy!" or utter bollocks like "Oh, it's happening right now!"

Argue all you want, but if you're just arguing bullshit, fuck off!

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Tom's avatar

Huh? You seem very blindered about what really went on in Europe post-WWII and during the Cold War.

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Todd's avatar

One of us is, to one degree or another I'm sure . . . .

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Susan Becraft's avatar

Is everyone thinking this was a false flag?

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BJ's avatar

The timing could not be more suspect! Yesterday the entire world was turning against Israel, today, will the world now weep? It has the fingerprints of the Zionists all over it.

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JennyStokes's avatar

I think this might be a valid point but I don't know.

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BJ's avatar

Another Oswald?

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JennyStokes's avatar

Perhaps.

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Alex's avatar

What, Israel staging a murder, even killing their own? Absolutely never. They’re always honest players. Just look at the USS Liberty. Or Oct. 7th. We can trust Israel. Blindly so.

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BJ's avatar

Bear in mind Alex, also the most moral army in the world. That would be the world of delusion of course.

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Tom's avatar

And the King David Hotel bombing. And the Lavon Affair. And likely even the Munich Olympics - lots of questions still about who the perps were really working for. Did I mention Lockerbie? Yes, Israeli fingerprints are on many so-called false flag attacks through the years.

But I think this one was genuine. No way Mossad would have put out such a well written and accurate "manifesto".

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Todd's avatar

The Israeli security establishment is goddamn sneaky and smart: I wouldn't put it past them to do something like this (shit like this has been done before). However, there is absolutely no reason why this incident couldn't have been completely "spontaneous" as well. Keep that in mind.

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Joy in HK fiFP's avatar

Thank you, Ken, it's very important that we have this original document. Mr. Rodriguez is very lucid. Those of us who prefer to plead our case rather than to do violence, are no doubt aware that neither violence nor non-violence is likely to make any difference to TPTB.

They have made their decision to continue on this path of destruction, regardless of the cost. The survival of the entire human species may lie in the balance. Desperate measures may be not only ineffective, but counter-productive. How to stop our so-called leaders from destroying the species, or just entire sub-sets, thereof, remains an open question.

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Gladwyn d'Souza's avatar

👏 👏

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Joe's avatar

Thank you for continuing to trust your readers with the unfiltered facts.

The Washington Post piece this morning on the shooting doesn't even mention the existence of the manifesto.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/05/21/dc-shooting-capital-jewish-museum/

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Chris G's avatar

Thank you, Ken, for sending this out so quickly. Hopefully this will get widespread notice and so dispel the propaganda that this is an anti-Semitic attack, when it is an anti-genocide attack.

Also, wish you would not use the term “Israel-Hamas War.” That is a gross distortion of what is actually occurring, which is simply a full on genocide and extermination campaign against Palestinians, in both Gaza and the West Bank. A ‘war’ implies some balance between the contending forces, and some rules on how it is conducted. Israel is attacking people imprisoned in a concentration camp, and Israel is breaking every norm and internationally recognized standard on the status of civilians and especially on how non-combatants are treated. Starving children, bombing hospitals, churches, mosques, and relief shelters is not, and never has been, recognized as legitimate in war.

Israel has lost all sense of humanity and morality. Israeli Zionism should simply never be allowed to exist after this, just as Nazi Germany was forced to de-Nazify. There will never be peace in the Middle East as long as Zionism exists.

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Chris's avatar

The alleged Israel embassy shooter 😉

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Little Nell's avatar

As always - an invaluable contribution to our understanding of an incident. The manifesto is brilliant, heartfelt, inspiring. Glad to know people like this still exist in the world.

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