Egypt's Brotherhood slams Israel over Gaza strikes

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Egypt's Brotherhood slams Israel over Gaza strikes

 

By AYA BATRAWY | Associated Press – Tue, Nov 13, 2012

 

 

Associated Press/Hatem Moussa - Palestinian women react during the funeral of Hamas militant Mohammed Al Qanoah in Gaza City, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012. A Palestinian health official said Al Qanoah has died of …more

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CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's powerful Muslim Brotherhood sharply criticized Israeli leaders on Tuesday over airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, accusing them of heating up the conflict to score political points ahead of elections.

The latest round of violence began Saturday, with rocket attacks from Gaza militants and Israeli airstrikes that killed seven Palestinians. More than 100 rockets have exploded in Israel since the weekend. The exchanges appeared to die down on Tuesday.

Also, Israeli tanks struck a Syrian artillery launcher Monday after a mortar shell flew into Israel-held territory, fueling concerns that Israel could be dragged into the Syrian civil war.

In its statement, the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party referred to Israel as a "Zionist occupier" and a "racist state," placing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on the "fringes" of the "far right."

"In the framework of elections that Israel is witnessing is a recent military escalation against occupied Gaza and the occupied Golan Heights," the statement said. Israel has set parliamentary elections for Jan. 22.

The Brotherhood's party called on Arab and Muslim governments "to stop the Zionist war that is operating under electoral calculations for personal gain far from humanitarian calculations for peace, security and stability."

The Muslim Brotherhood itself released a separate statement shortly after its party's, sharpening the criticism and accusing Israel of following a policy that tries to appear opposite itself "and God knows they are liars."

"The killing of tens of our innocent Palestinian brothers is part of a link in a chain of oppression and Judaization that seeks to impose itself on the ground, and that will never materialize with God's will," it said.

The harsh pronouncements followed a small demonstration in Cairo Monday and open letter signed by several liberal parties and revolutionary groups denouncing the Israeli strikes on Gaza.

The statements by both the Brotherhood and its political party highlight decades of tensions between neighbors Israel and Egypt, despite a 1979 peace treaty. The Islamists, repressed in Egypt under the regime that was ousted last year, have emerged as the most powerful group since last year's popular uprising. They won parliamentary elections and the presidency.

Last month, the group's supreme leader, Mohammed Badie, released a fiery tirade against Jews, accusing them of spreading corruption, slaughtering Muslims and desecrating holy sites. The comments were denounced by Israeli officials and a leading anti-Semitic watchdog group.

Unlike his predecessor, the ousted Hosni Mubarak, President Mohammed Morsi has not met Israeli officials since his election in June. He has also not mentioned Israel by name in official statements, in line with longstanding Brotherhood policy.

But to secure investments and bolster the economy, Morsi recently met with U.S. business executives from top American companies and vowed to respect his country's peace accord with Israel.

Since his election, Israel and Egypt have quietly cooperated over a military buildup in the Sinai Peninsula, where Islamist militants have been attacking Egyptian forces and launching attacks into Israel. The security coordination signals there is no significant shift in Cairo's policies toward Israel, despite the heated Brotherhood rhetoric.

Morsi has also indicated there will not be radical changes in policy anytime soon, even with Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which rules the Gaza Strip,.

Morsi's government still tightly controls Palestinian movement through the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. Egypt's role in a blockade of Gaza, imposed by Israel after Hamas won elections and later overran the territory in 2007, is highly unpopular.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but controls its airspace, seacoast and most land crossings.

In a meeting in Cairo Tuesday with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Morsi expressed his "full support" for Palestinian plans to seek nonmember state status at the United Nations.

Israel and the U.S. oppose the move.

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Islamist Mursi recalls Egypt’s ambassador to Israel over Gaza

 

Wednesday, 14 November 2012

 

 

President Mohammed Mursi ordered Egypt’s ambassador to Israel to return home after the latest Israeli strike that killed a Hamas figure in Gaza. (AP)

 

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By AL ARABIYA WITH AGENCIES

 

Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi decided on Wednesday to recall the ambassador to Israel after a series of air strikes in Gaza killed a top Hamas militant and six other people, his spokesman said.

 

Mursi decided to “recall Egypt’s ambassador to Israel,” spokesman Yassir Ali said in a statement broadcast on state television.

 

He also ordered the foreign ministry to summon Israel’s ambassador in Cairo.

 

Meanwhile, an airport source said on Wednesday that Israel’s ambassador left Egypt after Mursi announced he was summoning him to discuss the Israeli attacks in Gaza.

 

“The Israeli ambassador to Egypt left suddenly along with his embassy staff... after Egypt summoned its ambassador in Tel Aviv following the Israeli assault on Gaza enclave,” the source said.

 

But an Israeli diplomat said Israel’s ambassador to Egypt has not been recalled.

 

Ambassador Yaakov Amitai had come to Israel before the Jewish state launched an assault on the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the diplomat told Reuters, adding that the embassy in Cairo was functioning as normal.

 

Egypt’s foreign ministry condemned the attack and called for an immediate halt to the attacks.

 

The attacks came despite signs that Egypt had managed to broker a truce between Israel and Palestinian militants after a five-day surge in violence which saw more than 100 missiles fired out of Gaza and repeated Israeli strikes on the enclave.

 

“Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr condemned the series of air strikes that Israel is currently conducting against Gaza Strip and which led to the killing of Ahmed Al-Jaabari,” AFP reported the statement released by Egypt’s foreign ministry.

 

“He called on Israel to stop its strikes on Gaza Strip immediately,” the statement said adding that any further escalation from Israel “could have negative repercussions on the security and stabiltiy of the region.”

 

The statement said the Egyptian minister considered the “Israeli escalation to be very dangerous.”

 

Meanwhile, Egypt’s Islamist Freedom and Justice Party, formerly headed by Mursi, said on Wednesday Egypt would no longer stand by as Israel attacked Palestinians after air strikes killed a Hamas leader.

 

The FJP, the political arm of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood movement, said Israeli air strikes that killed top militant Ahmed al-Jaabari in Gaza earlier on Wednesday required “swift Arab and international action to stop the massacres.”

 

The party, which fielded Mursi in a June election to replace toppled president Hosni Mubarak, said Israel “must take into account the changes in the Arab region and especially Egypt.”

 

Egypt “will not allow the Palestinians to be subjected to Israeli aggression, as in the past,” the party statement said.

 

Mubarak, overthrown in early 2011, was criticized by his opponents for his response to an Israeli invasion of Gaza in 2008-2009 following rocket fire by Palestinian militants.

 

Mursi, a vociferous supporter of the Palestinians before his election, had been expected to open up to the blockaded Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, but his government has backed off from his pledges.

 

The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip called on Arab states, especially Egypt, to halt Israel’s assault on the Palestinian enclave, which was launched earlier on Wednesday.

 

“We call on our Arab brothers, and especially Egypt ... and the new Egyptian presidency, to suppress this barbaric campaign in defense of Gaza and its people,” Reuters reported Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of Hamas’s Gaza government, saying in a statement.

 

“I call for an urgent Arab summit to confront the brutal aggression,” he added.

 

The Arab League said that it will hold an urgent meeting Saturday to discuss the Israeli strike on Gaza.