September 5, 2014, - 3:01 pm
Steven Sotloff Story About Praying, Fasting on Yom Kippur is Fake, BS – Totally Debunked
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES ****
A number of people have sent me the phony story repeated all over the mainstream media claiming that ISIS’ leftist “Jewish” beheadee prayed and fasted on Yom Kippur while in captivity with ISIS. The story is completely false and unsubstantiated.
The story, originally published by left-wing, anti-Israel Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot (or as a friend calls it, Idiot Ahronot), is based on the claims of an “anonymous” alleged friend of Sotloff’s who claims he/she/it was in ISIS captivity along with Sotloff. The portion of the dubious story that has now been repeated a gazillion times by the rest of the media is below. There are so many holes in the story, it would make a great colander for halal spaghetti dinner. Sadly, the story has been repeated far and wide by many Jews and Westerners who want to make this Islamopanderer and cheerleader for Islamic terrorists into a martyr for the Jewish people. He is and was no such thing, and, again, the story is bunk. But the mainstream and Jewish media have repeated the BS as fact all over the Net and it has taken on a life of its own.
A friend who was with Sotloff in captivity told Ynet’s sister-print publication Yedioth Aharonoth that Sotloff was Jewish – a fact he hid from his captors – and even managed to observe the Yom Kippur fast while in Islamic State captivity. “He told them he was sick and didn’t want to eat, even though we were served eggs that day,” the friend said. “He used to pray secretly in the direction of Jerusalem. He would see in which direction (his Muslim captors) were praying and then adjust the angle.”
*** UPDATE: But there are only a handful of documented cases of any hostages released/freed by ISIS (even for large amounts of ransom), except for Nicolas Henin, who now says he was held ISIS but says only that he was held with James Foley, NOT Steven Sotloff. He was held together with three other French journalists and they were all chained together for a large portion of that time. And while they’ve talked publicly about Foley being beaten, none has publicly stated anything about Sotloff. And it’s unlikely if they did so, they’d choose to be anonymous, since they haven’t been anonymous in their statements thus far about the rest of their experiences in ISIS captivity. There is absolutely no evidence that any of the very few hostages released by ISIS ever saw Steven Sotloff pray on Yom Kippur or do any of the things in the fairy tale story of an “anonymous source” quoted in Idiot Ahronot. END UPDATE *** But there are a lot of people who barely knew him trying to glom onto the story (see fake “Mossad agent” Gregg Roman, who told me both he and Sotloff were Mossad agents–not true–and who described Sotloff as “the Jewish Indiana Jones”–even more blatant baloney).
The same reporter for the same anti-Israel Israeli newspaper who wrote the phony baloney Yom Kippur story on Sotloff now has a story up about Sotloff’s self-proclaimed “heroic” left-wing friends (most of whom didn’t actually know Sotloff), including fake Mossad agent Gregg Roman (who barely knew Sotloff if at all). The reporter is clearly easily manipulated into fake “scoops” without any verification whatsoever, by people who are interested in rehabilitating Sotloff’s reputation.
Anyone who believes this fantastic fairy tale is an incredibly naive and easily duped fool who ignores the facts about Steven Sotloff. A number of people who’ve sent me the story are Jews who don’t want to face the facts that Sotloff was a documented lover of Islam and a cheerleader of Islamic “rebels” a/k/a terrorists of every dangerous stripe. They want to believe he died as a religious Jew, when he never ever was one and was a documented HAMAS and ISIS lover.
Many of Steven Sotloff’s friends and classmates from college have contacted me regarding how angry they are by this phony story because Steven Sotloff was a completely secular Jew, who barely knew Hebrew, much less the Yom Kippur prayers (which even many Orthodox Jews would not know by heart). There is no way he would know the prayers, much less which day it was on the Hebrew calendar to even know which day was Yom Kippur. He reveled in his apostasy, which is why he embraced Islam and deeply loved Islamic culture, according to all press people and friends of his on the ISIS trail. All of those who know him say he was more likely to be driving around and eating a bacon cheeeseburger on Yom Kippur than praying.
And all of those who knew him tell me that the reason these stories are now out there is that the media and some of Sotloff’s friends want to make him into a martyr, rather than what he was–a panderer to and cheerleader to Islamic terrorists–which makes his story and his beheading far less compelling and sympathetic.
Sotloff went to a Reform Temple, which he did not attend regularly. Anyone who knows anything about Judaism knows that Reform Jews are completely ignorant of Judaism. Most cannot read a word of Hebrew (which is why most of their abbreviated, hippie-style prayers are in English), and none can remember the Yom Kippur prayers by heart (heck, even the most religious Orthodox Jews don’t remember those prayers without a prayer book). Most do not even fast on Yom Kippur.
The story is highly phony–there isn’t a single shred of evidence to back it up–and not a thing that makes it believable. Moreover, even in the very unlikely event that the story is true (it isn’t) and that this guy finally “found G-d” when he knew death could be near, it makes no difference with regard to–nor does it negate–Sotloff’s long history of supporting HAMAS (while he was in college at Israel and held Israeli citizenship) and his history of supporting Shi’ite terrorists in Bahrain, Sunni Muslim Brotherhood terrorists in Egypt, Sunni Al-Qaeda terrorists in Libya, and Sunni ISIS and FSA terrorists in Syria and Iraq, all of which he did.
The story simply isn’t true, though, and it’s amazing that when people and the mainstream media want to promote and believe something, they’ll run with it, no matter how phony the story is and how thin the evidence (in this case, none) there is.
Anytime you see a story with the byline of Yitzhak Benhorin, the guy who wrote this fairy tale for Yediot Ahronot, you’ll know you can’t believe a word.
***
Much has also been made of Sotloff’s reported Israeli citizenship, but here’s a tip: Sotloff obtained citizenship before going to college there at the IDC (Interdisciplinary Center). He only lived there for college, from 2005-2008, during which his classmates all knew him as an anti-Israel left-winger and apologist for HAMAS. His classmate, Hillary Lynne Glaser, said he “hated Israel” (but not enough not to come visit ONCE for a friend’s wedding). Sotloff did NOT, by the way, ever serve in the IDF (the Israeli Defense Forces) as is required of all Jewish citizens, so he was a draft dodger.
After he left Israel in 2008, Sotloff lived FOR YEARS in Yemen, where all of his friends told the media, he “deeply loved the Islamic world.” It’s funny to read stories that claim Sotloff made “aliyah” to Israel. Aliyah is the Hebrew word for “going up.” It’s the term for Jews who move to Israel permanently, but Sotloff never did that. He left in 2008, which would make what he did “Yeridah” (going down), the term used for Jews who leave Israel.
Funny how Yediot Ahronot, which “reported” in the same story featuring the BS Sotloff Yom Kippur praying and fasting fairy tale, also claimed Sotloff made “aliyah” and didn’t point out the “yeridah” part.
**** UPDATE: To give you an idea of how easily duped people are by Idiot Ahronot’s phony story about Sotloff praying and fasting on Yom Kippur and how it’s taken on a life of its own, read this e-mail message I received this morning:
From: Joel Moskowitz yoel.moskowitz@gmail.com
Date: Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 8:37 AM
Subject: Steve Sotloff
To: writedebbie@gmail.comI don’t know you and now certainly don’t care to. What you are doing to Mr. Sotloff who died sanctifying God’s name is a disgrace to humanity. You are taking your advocacy of a just cause to the levels of the murderers you rail against. You should repent to God and his family before Yom Kippur.
Yoel (Joel) Moskowitz
yoel.moskowitz@gmail.com
Reality check: Sotloff didn’t die “sanctifying G-d’s name.” He died just after reading an anti-American propaganda statement ISIS forced him to read and which he did, even though he knew he was about to beheaded (his being killed is part of the statement he read). He died after YEARS of living in Yemen, where he “deeply loved Islam,” according to all of his friends’ accounts in the mainstream media. He died after years of apologism for HAMAS, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Hezbollah Shi’ites.
Sanctifying G-d’s name wasn’t involved. Unless you consider his own family’s statement through their Muslim spokesman in Arabic in which they said that Steven Sotloff died “as a martyr for allah.”
Got that?
Tags: Gregg Roman Steven Sotloff, Steven Sotloff, Steven Sotloff Israel, Steven Sotloff Israeli citizen, Yediot Ahronot, Yitzhak Benhorin
Yes, the idea that Sotloff was some kind of double-agent is absurd. Even “agents” designated as patsies have to have some minimal level of intellectual capability. The evidence clearly demonstrates that Sotloff lack that minimal level.
Furthermore, I had read somewhere that Sotloff’s captors did not even know of his former “Jewish” background. All they knew was that he was an American who had converted to Islam. That is far more credible than this double-agent nonsense. That Sotloff was American was sufficient enough for those barbarians.
Ralph Adamo on September 5, 2014 at 3:29 pm