Mar. 20, 2026, PBS’ show “Off the record featured a panel of four hosting Michigan State Representative Alabas Farhat, who represents over 90,000 residents in Dearborn (another 90,000 are represented by a different representative). During the program, Farhat blamed Jews for the current, joint U.S.-Israel military operations in Iran, with very little, if any, real challenge from the panel.
Questions for Farhat centered around how Michigan voters viewed Trump’s actions in Iran, how the “uncommitted” movement in Michigan might have contributed to the president’s reelection, as well as some financial issues and local politics. Notably absent was any discussion of the terror attack on the nearby West Bloomfield synagogue, particularly since the attacker lived in Dearborn Heights, part of which Farhat represents. (“Off the Record” hosted Farhat the week prior, too, on Mar. 14, 2026 -likely filmed on Mar. 13, 2026 – when he was also not asked anything about the terror attack that had just happened.)
Farhat mocked the idea that Iran was close to obtaining nuclear weapons.
The Gen Z state representative said, “Ever since I’ve been alive, Iran has been six months away.”
He then falsely alleged that the United States was spending $200 billion “to fight this conflict on Israel’s behalf.” Even the highest estimates come in at a quarter of Farhat’s figure. Then Kyle Melinn, a panelist, asked Farhat,
Isn’t this war more about helping Israel and getting back at those individuals – those terrorists – who went into Israel on October 7 and raped and pillaged hundreds of people? Aren’t we helping Israel settle that score and get after a country that was harboring terrorists for years?
Farhat answered, “This is 100 percent a result of Israel’s advocacy and the advocacy of groups like AIPAC, that bring us into a conflict in the Middle East that the American people never voted for.” (AIPAC is the American-Israel Political Action Committee, funded entirely by Americans.)
Farhat also described Iran simply as a country with which America has differences. “If today we decide we’re going after a country because we don’t agree with them, then when are we going into North Korea? When are we going into Sudan?” he asked.
The panel of four did not think to ask Farhat about the takeover of the American embassy in Iran in 1979 or the holding of American444days. It did not address the fact that the Iranian regime chants “Death to America” daily and recently attempted assassinations on American soil. Both Farhat and the panel ignored the hundreds of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Syrians (not to mention Israelis or Jews in other countries) Iran has killed directly or through its proxies.
Farhat’s ridiculous description of the U.S.-Iran relationship (and the panel’s silence) further ignored the massacre, by the Islamic Republic regime, of Iranian protestors in January 2026.
Unsurprisingly, searches on Farhat’s social media “X” account show no mention of “Hezbollah” – responsible for the death of hundreds of marines in Beirut – or Iranian “protestors” in any of his posts. It is likely he knows full well that the Iranian regime kills its own people and sponsors proxy terror groups that have wreaked havoc around the world, but does not care.
To this elected Michigan official, Iran is just a country “we don’t agree with.” And not one of the panelists disagreed with him or made counterarguments.
Melinn circled back to Farhat’s comments on AIPAC. He said, “For the listeners at home, AIPAC is a huge super PAC funded by primarily Jewish groups. How do you make the argument against AIPAC without it sounding antisemitic?” (AIPAC stands for American Israel Political Affairs Committee. It is funded by individuals, not “Jewish groups,” and while fair to assume the majority of supporters are Jewish, for the past more than 13 years, the organization expanded its base to include evangelical Christians, African-Americans, Latinos and student leaders.)
Melinn’s botched description of AIPAC was only then compounded by Farhat misrepresenting AIPAC’s mission in an unsettling way. Farhat described AIPAC’s goal as ensuring unwavering support for the nation of Israel, but that Americans ought to set priorities “as to what furthers America’s interests first.” Instead of recognizing that many Americans believe a strong relationship with Israel does further America’s interests, Farhat leaned into conspiracies of Israeli control over American policy and an AIPAC somehow beholden to foreign interests.
Farhat’s social media reveals that he engages in anti-Israel rhetoric. On Mar. 9, 2026, Farhat falsely accused Israel of targeting civilians in Lebanon, despite widespread news reports of the IDF directing civilians to evacuate before military operations to avoid harm.
Even conservative lawmakers are condemning Israel’s targeting of civilians in Lebanon. Standing against civilian harm isn’t a political position, it’s a moral one. https://t.co/XqnfS8dPPN
— Alabas Farhat (@AlabasFarhat) March 9, 2026
He is apparently also a Hamas apologist. When posting on the social media platform “X,” Farhat implicitly referred to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel when he wrote (on Oct. 8) that the “situation did not happen overnight.” The post did not explicitly mention the 1,200 brutally murdered by Hamas, and didn’t mention the hostages taken by Hamas. Later he recklessly promoted the genocide libel when referring to the Israel-Hamas war.
The issues with Farhat’s comments about the operations in Iran were not merely his lazy, Jew-blaming arguments, but that with little exception, the panel allowed his rhetoric to go unchallenged.
Panels like those on “Off the Record” should be willing and able to inform, scrutinize and elevate public discourse. Instead, the panel largely provided an uncritical platform for Farhat’s tropes of outsized Jewish or Israeli influence on American foreign policy. In a time of heightened sensitivities, particularly close in time to a terrorist attack in Michigan– which went unmentioned – PBS failed in its journalistic duties by allowing such rhetoric to stand.