WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (VINnews) — The man who tried to carry out a deadly attack at a Jewish preschool in suburban Detroit had relatives believed to be members of the terrorist group Hezbollah, according to law enforcement sources.
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Authorities identified the suspect as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Lebanon. Officials said Ghazali rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into Temple Israel Synagogue on Thursday, where a preschool operates.
Security guards opened fire, stopping the attack before it could escalate. Ghazali was killed when the vehicle later burst into flames. No children or staff were injured.
Initial reports circulating in some media outlets suggested Ghazali may have been motivated by family members killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon. However, law enforcement sources told the New York Post that two of those relatives were believed to be members of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.
A local official in the Lebanese town of Mashgharah told The Associated Press that Ghazali’s brothers and two other relatives were killed in airstrikes in their home shortly after sunset during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Law enforcement sources said Ghazali had entered the United States in 2011 and became a citizen about five years later. He was questioned by authorities in Atlanta in 2019 after returning from a trip overseas and told officials he had traveled for a hair transplant.
Officials also said contacts linked to suspected Hezbollah members were found on his phone, prompting a follow-up review by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the time. The outcome of that review remains unclear.
Investigators continue to examine Ghazali’s background and possible motives in what authorities described as a thwarted terror attack targeting a Jewish institution.
To terrorists, anti-Zionists, and other antisemites, it’s completely irrelevant if a Reform Jew is halachically Jewish or not. If they identity as Jews, the assumption is that they support Israel.
That’s enough for them.
Very scary terror attacks are increasing Biden let in tons of Muslims
Oh. A norm teirutz.
So what if he had relatives who are hizbulla that got blown up by Israel.
What kind of sorry excuse is that to then go blow up a preschool of kids that have nothing to do with the Israeli government other than being jews (and even that isn’t 100% accurate bc reform doesn’t follow halacha, so half or more are probably not Jewish either)
He probably went to attack only because of his religion of peace and wd do so even if all of his relatives were still around.
Nice try
The comments section after stories such as these are more informative than the articles themselves. For a generation who grew up with Holocaust survivors as parents, and the few Admorim who were zoche to survive, we were to taught to appreciate that all yidden were important. Obviously the Germans felt no need to differentiate. It is we who have not been able to impress that simple fact upon our society.
No one suggests that every yid is someone you would wish your children to marry. But each carries within their spiritual and physical DNA a “pintele” yid. There is a flame there waiting to be fanned, something that is H-shem’s unique gift that is NECESSARY to the world. We suffer for ignoring it and mistakenly comfort ourselves by saying they are NOT yeshivish, chasidish, haimish, yiddish, observant …etc enough.
That is why we so earnestly daven for Moshiach – who will take us from being a tzibbur (a collection of disparate individuals), or eidah (a purposeful group of individuals) and turn us into a kehilla kedoshah worthy of a Bais HaMikdash. After two thousand years of Golus and the hundreds of years prior of internecine quarrels , it is time we learn the lessons of history – if you have nothing nice to say, be quiet. Lead with your actions of Torah guided mitzvos and maasim tovim. Be an example, not an inquisitor. Mussar should only be given with love, warm and corrective guidance.
Dabru davar v’lo yakum