Media Tries to Justify Michigan Synagogue Attack — Here’s What They’re Leaving Out
“Even IF this were true, what is your point? … Can a Jew blow up an Islamic school in NYC every time a Palestinian terrorist kills an Israeli?”
On Thursday afternoon, a man drove an explosives-laden truck into Temple Israel, a Reform Jewish synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The suspect then exited the vehicle with a rifle and exchanged gunfire with an armed security guard. According to the FBI, he killed himself shortly afterward. The suspect, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, was a naturalized U.S. citizen of Lebanese origin who lived near Dearborn.
As if to justify Ghazali’s actions, multiple legacy media outlets, including the Associated Press, reported Friday that he allegedly carried out the attack after a March 5 Israeli airstrike in Mashgharah, Lebanon, killed two of his brothers, along with a niece and nephew. According to the AP, the airstrike occurred “just after sunset as they were having their fast-breaking meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.”
Poor Ghazali. Overcome with grief after losing several family members to an Israeli military assault, who could blame him for avenging their deaths?
But the initial media coverage left out one critical piece of information: the brothers were members of Hezbollah. CBS News later reported that, according to a Lebanese journalist, Ghazali’s brothers were both members of a Hezbollah rocket unit in southern Lebanon — a detail that changes the story entirely.
The AP confirms Drop Site’s reporting that four relatives of Ayman Mohamad Ghazali — the suspect in Thursday’s Michigan synagogue attack — were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Mashgharah, Lebanon on March 5.
AP reports the strike hit the family home just after sunset as they… https://t.co/2KxGwFjYp8
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 13, 2026
Breaking: A Lebanese official confirmed to NBC that the Michigan terrorist’s two brothers were members of Hezbollah.
CBS News further reported that they served in the terror group’s rocket unit in southern Lebanon.
So will @ryangrim apologize to the for being full of shit? https://t.co/EjFTkfMeHP pic.twitter.com/08v8Kqf3gP
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) March 13, 2026
Conservatives — as they should — quickly pounced on the media’s attempt to justify Ghazali’s attack on the Michigan synagogue. In the X post below, Clay Travis rightly asks, “How many Jewish people who lost relatives on 10/7 have attacked American mosques? This is supremely embarrassing media coverage.”
How many Jewish people who lost relatives on 10/7 have attacked American mosques? This is supremely embarrassing media coverage. https://t.co/alq9K3hHql
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 13, 2026
Similarly, activist Frank McCormick, asked, “Even IF this were true, what is your point? That some Jewish preschoolers have to pay in blood because of something Israel allegedly did? Does this work for all situations? Can a Jew blow up an Islamic school in NYC every time a Palestinian terrorist kills an Israeli?”
Even IF this were true, what is your point? That some Jewish preschoolers have to pay in blood because of something Israel allegedly did?
Does this work for all situations?
Can a Jew blow up an Islamic school in NYC every time a Palestinian terrorist kills an Israeli? https://t.co/XqjU2cOcqd
— Frank McCormick (@CBHeresy) March 13, 2026
If the Israeli-Gaza war demonstrated anything, it was the extraordinary power of information warfare. The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel were unspeakably barbaric — atrocities no rational person could excuse.
But through a coordinated disinformation campaign involving large swaths of the media, international institutions such as the United Nations, nongovernmental organizations, political leaders, and pro-Palestinian activists, Israel was quickly recast as the villain in the court of public opinion. Astonishingly, rather than Hamas’s savagery, it was Israel’s response to the massacre that became the primary target of global condemnation.
A similar dynamic is already beginning to take shape in the war with Iran. Setting aside the regime’s 47-year record of repression and murder — and the pleas of millions of Iranian citizens who have called on President Trump to help topple the despots responsible for the execution of roughly 35,000 protesters during a two-day crackdown in January — a new narrative is taking hold: that Trump lacked the authority to strike Iran, that the war itself is unlawful, and that the U.S. has once again been recklessly drawn into a Middle Eastern quagmire.
The media’s initial attempt to spin Ghazali’s decision to attack a Michigan synagogue as justifiable is a perfect example of the power of propaganda. Frankly, I’m surprised that they ultimately reported the truth — that the brothers were both members of a Hezbollah rocket unit. They must have had no other alternative.
But make no mistake: Democratic politicians and the corporate media are working hard to put a negative spin on this war. This is not merely propaganda — it is strategy. The flood of disinformation, the political maneuvering in Washington, and the amplification by sympathetic media outlets all serve the same purpose: eroding public support and pressuring the Trump administration to abandon the fight before its objectives are achieved.
That outcome would hand the Iranian regime a victory it cannot secure on the battlefield. Tehran understands that if it can weaken the resolve of the political establishment in Washington, the war may end on terms favorable to the regime. It certainly worked for Hamas.
Trump must not allow that to happen. Iran may still have weapons and propaganda at its disposal, but its ability to wage war is collapsing by the day. The worst possible outcome now would be to stop short of finishing the job.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
Accessory after the fact?
#nurembergtwo
My point is: We have bona-fide enemies of the republic at large, many lodged in the press corps.
They need to be treated as such and when they go against us in war time, prosecuted to the maximum extent possible pursuant to state,federal and military code statutes.
Of course count Boasberger will quash any grand juries. Add him to the list. He would look awesome in a rope necktie… 🙂
Rather the punishment should be a life of constant soul crushing regret.
Let’s take a step back and think about tis…
You’ll never get that smell of of the brush chipper….
William A Jacobson: Why must typo’s be ETERNAL on LI???????? 🙂
Because some posters refuse to use the preview button.
Seriously, an edit button could change everything for the worse on this site. I agree with the professor on not having one.
Typos are generally forgiven.
“You’ll have no Edit button and enjoy it!”
“Preview button”….
That’s not foolproof. Ever try proofreading your own writing? You see what you think you wrote, not necessarily what you actually wrote.
Them having a soul is assuming facts not in evidence.
That extent is zero. Unless they are literally coordinating their reporting with the IRGC, everything they do is protected by the first amendment.
Why do we accept as received wisdom the claim that family members were killed in an Israeli airstrike? Were they? We don’t know. We also don’t know that they weren’t the intended targets. It could be that those killed were combatants. Seems like a lot of loose ends to be making proclamations.
Members of the press think that they’ll be honored associates of the caliphate should islam accomplish what they have expressly stated their goal to be: the takeover of the United States.
What will actually happen is that their heads will be separated from their bodies just as Daniel Pearl’s was (forgot about him, didntcha?)
Islam is evil. There’s no way to reform it. You can only drive it out, hopefully without violence but not always.
History is *filled* with examples of this.
So, unless you want your hometown to be governed like NYC (and that is going to get bloody awful before too long) keep the muslim at arm’s length.
Members of the press are simply Useful Idiots™ who will be the first against the wall when the islamic revolution comes to the United States and their usefulness is at an end to the caliphate. That is all.
eot
One really can’t despise the media enough. Instead of rationalizing the claimed motivations of this terrorist, maybe a little time should be spent looking at the pathway to citizenship of a terrorist with a family chock full of Hezbollah?
Lying media –
Ayatollah Khamenei NYT obituary – A hardline cleric who made Iran a regional power.
Hitler – A dog loving artist who made germany a world power.
And Kilmar Garcia, that “Maryland family guy.”
How about executing a random “journalist”: every time a media outlet anywhere in the world lies in a story. I can get behind that.
How’s about Israel drops a bomb, filled with cluster munitions, on a muslim neighborhood every time Iran launches a missile filed with cluster munitions into Israel. Hell I;d settle for that neighborhood being in the US although I doubt there are sufficient muslim neighborhoods to absorb such retribution. Seems fair to me according to the press’s opinions.
I would not miss Dearbornistan or Hamtramckstan MI, or their mayors.
The Democrat-Media Complex are ghouls. Subversive, shameless, depraved, duplicitous ghouls.
His “defense” is zero defense. In America, such a complaint is Zero Excuse. Whether his “brothers” were or were not in hezbollah is completely irrelevant.
The rest of his family if any, here, should be denaturalized and deported. They raised him to be this way.
There is no such thing as “denaturalization”, if the original naturalization was valid. The term is misused for the process of proving in court that a person’s purported naturalization never happened, or was invalid.
That’s exactly like proving that someone purporting to be a citizen by birth isn’t. (There was such a case recently. A woman with ISIS was claiming to be a US citizen by birth, but the government proved in court that at the time she was born her parents had diplomatic immunity, and were therefore not under US jurisdiction. Therefore she was never a US citizen and could be deported.
It was complicated, because at the time of her birth her parents’ home country had fired her father, so as far as it was concerned he was no longer its diplomat. But the State Department hadn’t updated its files and didn’t strip her parents’ immunity until several months later, so as a matter of US law they were still immune at the time, and thus she was not born a citizen.)
Reporting someone’s motive for a crime is legitimate news, and the media would be at fault if they didn’t report it.
Reporting someone’s motive for a crime is not the same thing as justifying or excusing the crime.
To the MSM, the explanation also counts as an excuse. Sort of like someone who casually explains away a vehicular homicide as “I was drunk.”
And if you’re a democrat, it works. Look at Teddy “Mary Jo Kopechne” Kennedy. Seems like murder and licentiousness made him more popular with his demonrat voter base.
And not a dingle “journalist” said anything like that, did they?
When you report the motive (leaving out pertinent facts) and don’t say anything like “But that’s still no excuse” then you are endorsing or excusing the action.
Lying by omission is quite common, whether blogs, news articles. or books. Always upon reading such story about a controversial topic ask, “what are they not saying.” There is so much advocacy journalism out there which at first reading seems reasonable until one starts to poke around to find out what is missing. While there is no certain defense against advocacy journalism (except perhaps blogs such as this), it pays to be informed by a wide variety of sources and view points. For example, one would search in vain for the total budget of $1.5B that the Harris campaign blew through or if the entertainers that she frequently mentions attending her rallys were paid to be there while reading Kamala Harris’ book “107 Days”.
A side issue: according to a commenter here a few days ago, Reform Jews have temples, while Orthodox and Traditional Jews have synagogues, as also outlined here. So I thought I had learned something new. Now I am disoriented, because everybody is talking about this incident at a “Reform synagogue.” What am I missing?
TNX. as a word collector I’d always been wondering about the difference between synagogue, temple, and shul.
BTW: Grok defines the difference in pretty much the same manner (now that I’ve looked it up on Grok)
“Synagogue” is the generic term in English for all Jewish houses of worship, including those whose users call them “temples”. It’s a Greek word that English-speakers are familiar with because it’s used in the New Testament.
“Temple” is what Reform Jews call their synagogues, for ideological reasons that by now they have mostly forgotten.
1.Even IF this were true, what is your point? … Can a Jew blow up an Islamic school in NYC every time a Palestinian terrorist kills an Israeli?”
2.Even IF this were true, what is your point? … Can a Jew blow up an Islamic school in NYC every time a Palestinian terrorist kills an Israeli?”
3.Even IF this were true, what is your point? … Can a Jew blow up an Islamic school in NYC every time a Palestinian terrorist kills an Israeli?”
4.Even IF this were true, what is your point? … Can a Jew blow up an Islamic school in NYC every time a Palestinian terrorist kills an Israeli?”
Elizabeth – if A.I. isn’t already writing this stuff for you, do you think you could ask it for a little editing help? You are redundantly redundant.
The point IS a good one, but you don’t have to go full porcupine with it, okay?
3.
intentional or not
the question must be repeated as its severity is overlooked b/c the good people are willing to take another beating to avoid more bloodshed while the left is content with the bloodshed
the question must be repeated as its severity is overlooked b/c the good people are willing to take another beating to avoid more bloodshed while the left is content with the bloodshed
the question must be repeated as its severity is overlooked b/c the good people are willing to take another beating to avoid more bloodshed while the left is content with the bloodshed
the question must be repeated as its severity is overlooked b/c the good people are willing to take another beating to avoid more bloodshed while the left is content with the bloodshed
the question must be repeated as its severity is overlooked b/c the good people are willing to take another beating to avoid more bloodshed while the left is content with the bloodshed
Once in a tweet, once in the in-line reprise of the tweet (a nagging redundancy I have learned to live with in blogs everywhere) and once in the subheadline because it’s a major point in the story. It’s not that redundant, considering.
It was a “mostly friendly” rocket unit.
GWB: The rockets were rockets of peace.”
“And love,” added Condoleezza Rice.
Love Rocket.
Wasn’t there just a Ninth Circuit case about that?
the msm still bya nd large wont call Oct7 2023’s massacre of j ews ,,just that
instead its the
“continued gaza war” in relation to oct 7 2023
fjb
Imagine the surprise of muslims to find out that CNN and MSNOW broadcast in code, being Zionists, who will undermine Mohammed for the West.