Netanyahu: Sotloff Died Because He Symbolized Western Culture
In his condolences to the family of Steven Sotloff, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the American-Israeli journalist symbolized Western culture to the Islamists who murdered him.
“I would like to send condolences to the family of Steven Sotloff who was murdered by ISIS in an act of appalling brutality,” Netanyahu said Thursday night at a ceremony honoring the Israel Police’s Yamam anti-terrorism unit. “Steven was murdered because for the terrorists he was a symbol of the West — the same culture that extremist Islam wants to eradicate.”
Sotloff, who was Jewish and who had Israeli citizenship, was abducted last year after crossing the Syrian border from Turkey. A video documenting his beheading was released Tuesday by the Islamist ISIS organization.
In his address, Netanyahu linked the actions of ISIS with those of Hamas.
“Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, al Qaeda, Jabhat al Nusra, Boko Haram and others like them are all arms of the same Islamist, terrorist, violent and hate filled octopus,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu equated Hamas and ISIS also after the beheading last month of another American journalist, James Foley.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30