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Two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed on Wednesday evening by a man who yelled “Free Palestine.” The man allegedly wrote a manifesto, and it isn’t clear yet what his motives are, his mental state, if he was a lone actor, or as our guest today puts it: “crazy.”

That guest is Useful Idiots fan-favorite Professor Norman Finkelstein, who gives his analysis of the shooting, beginning with a historical connection he made in his initial reaction.

Useful Idiots: Let's start with the top news in the US: the shooting of two Israeli embassy officials outside an event in Washington, DC. What we know so far is that the alleged shooter chanted Free Palestine. There's also a manifesto that's been purported to be written by him, although we haven't confirmed that. With so much going on in Gaza, atrocities day by day, it feels a little inhuman to talk about two deaths in Washington when there's thousands of deaths going on in Gaza. But what is your reaction?

Norman Finkelstein: Well, my first reaction is that you have to have the facts and make a careful evaluation on the basis of the facts. When I first read about it this morning, I thought it had occurred at the Israeli consulate. And I assumed it was a Palestinian who had committed the action. And my first reaction was to remember the [Polish Jewish] fellow Herschel Grynszpan, who assassinated the second-level diplomat in the German legation in Paris in 1938.

He reacted in sheer horror at what was being done to the Jews. And he did an act. Of course, the Germans called it an act of terrorism, and that's what triggered Kristallnacht. I'm not aware of any [historians] who condemned him for the act, even though you could say it was not a very smart thing to do because it triggered Kristallnacht.

So that was my initial reaction. But then that turned out to be wrong because of two things. It didn't occur in the Israeli consulate. It occurred in front of a Jewish museum in Washington. And secondly, it's unclear at this point whether the alleged perpetrator was even aware that these two people worked in the Israeli consulate. So that throws a large number of variables into the equation. There seems to be this big disconnect between a sophisticated manifesto and a fellow just going randomly in front of a Jewish museum in Washington and attempting to assassinate two people who presumably he thought were Jewish.

So everything remains foggy now. I would say for me, the bottom line is it could have been a nutty guy. That's always possible. It could be a smart guy with a crazy project. It could be a crazy guy with a crazy project.

Useful Idiots: Let’s talk about Israel itself. You have Israeli politicians openly talking about how every baby in Gaza is our enemy. And unfortunately, these views are widely held. What are your thoughts on Israel right now in terms of its place as a unique society on the spectrum of lunacy, of collective insanity in the same way that Nazi Germany was an example of outright collective insanity? Where do you situate Israel in that right now?

Norman Finkelstein: All the demons in Israeli society, which they had to repress, all the demons rose to the surface after October 7: they had moral license to publicly espouse. It was there. If you scratch the surface with any Israeli, their loathing and contempt for Arabs in general and Gazans in particular, it was there. So there was a veneer of being civilized and what October 7 did was it enabled the Israelis to free themselves from that veneer and for all the demons to rise to the surface.

On the other hand, I would s