The New Egypt: We Will Never Recognize Israel

by Joseph Klein

The Islamists, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, are poised to take control of the newly elected Egyptian parliament. As they consolidate their power internally, the Muslim Brotherhood-led Islamists will likely turn Egypt into a hotbed of jihadism against anything non-Muslim, taking direct aim at the Jewish state of Israel.

Last winter, as the Egyptian people were rising up against President Hosni Mubarak, Muhammad Ghannem, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, told the Arabic-language Iranian news network Al-Alam:

The people should be prepared for war against Israel. The Egyptian people are prepared for anything to get rid of this regime.

Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader Dr Rashad Bayoumi started off 2012 with a belligerent interview published in the Arabic daily al-Hayat, in which he insisted that his organization will not recognize Israel “under any circumstance.” Bayoumi added that “we do not recognize Israel at all. [Israel is] an occupying criminal enemy.”

Bayoumi’s declaration came less than a week after the Muslim Brotherhood, which gave birth to Hamas, hosted Hamas’s Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh with a warm welcome at the Muslim Brotherhood’s Cairo area headquarters. This was Haniyeh’s first trip outside of Gaza since Hamas took over Gaza by force in 2007. He milked every ounce of anti-Israel propaganda that he could from the visit. As quoted by Egypt’s state news agency MENA, Haniyeh declared:

Our presence with the Brotherhood threatens the Israeli entity.

The Muslim Brotherhood​’s Supreme Guide Mohammed Badei, who greeted Haniyeh, engaged in a mutual admiration session with Haniyeh during their meeting. Badei went so far as to extol the Muslim Brotherhood offspring Hamas for now serving as its parent’s role model.

During a joint press conference, as reported in the Jerusalem Post, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas leaders had this chummy exchange:

Badei: “You are welcome to our country; you are welcome to our headquarters. The general center of Muslim Brotherhood is paying attention all the time to the Palestinian issue as it pays attention to the issues of liberation all over the world.”

Haniyeh: “The Islamic resistance movement of Hamas, by definition is, a jihadist movement by the Muslim Brotherhood, Palestinian on the surface, Islamic at its core and its goal is liberation.”

The Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot Hamas are joined at the hip. Indeed, Hamas’s charter begins with a homage to Hamas’s roots in the “Muslim Brotherhood Movement,” which the charter describes as a “world organization, the largest Islamic Movement in the modern era.”

Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, and Badei, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leader in Egypt, reflect the Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood partnership’s shared goal to destroy the Jewish state.

Just two weeks prior to the confab between Badei and Haniyeh in Cairo, Haniyeh was in Gaza marking the 24th anniversary of the founding of Hamas. The Hamas leader was quoted by Palestinian Media Watch as saying that Hamas’s “strategic” goal remains the complete elimination of the Jewish state of Israel:

We say today, explicitly, so it cannot be explained otherwise, that the armed resistance and the armed struggle are the path and the strategic choice for liberating the Palestinian land, from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river, and for the expulsion of the invaders and usurpers [Israel]… We won’t relinquish one inch of the land of Palestine. The Hamas movement will lead Intifada after Intifada until we liberate Palestine – all of Palestine, Allah willing. Allah Akbar and praise Allah… These principles are absolute and cannot be disputed: Palestine – all of Palestine – is from the sea to the river. We won’t relinquish one inch of the land of Palestine. The involvement of Hamas at any stage with the interim objective of liberation of [only] Gaza, the West Bank, or Jerusalem, does not replace its strategic view concerning Palestine and the land of Palestine.

There are some people who think that the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are solely Israel’s problem, not ours. Others, including senior members of the Obama administration, believe that the Muslim Brotherhood is now a reformed “moderate” organization that the United States government should recognize and do business with. They are sadly mistaken.

Israel and the United States face a common global enemy – Islamist jihadism – which both the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas embody. “Democracy,” in the eyes of both organizations, is only a tactical means to securing power, which is to be exercised in the service of sharia law, jihad and Islamic supremacy.

While Israel experienced the tragic human toll of Islamic jihadism first, 9/11 brought it directly to our shores. David Horowitz​ was perfectly correct when he said that “Israel is the canary in the mine. What happens to Israel will eventually happen to America itself.”

Both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood have eulogized the jihadist terrorist in chief and architect of 9/11, Osama bin Laden. Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, condemned the United States for killing bin Laden, whom he praised as “a Muslim and Arabic warrior.” The Muslim Brotherhood​ described bin Laden as a “Sheikh,” and also condemned his assassination.

If the Obama administration thinks that helping to empower a Muslim Brotherhood-led Sunni Islamist crescent is an effective way to counter the so-called Iranian-led Shia crescent across the Middle East region, it should think again. Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood have put traditional Sunni-Shia religious differences aside and forged close ties with the Iranian regime.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood openly sided with Ayatollah Khomeini​’s establishment of an Islamic theocracy in Iran. The Iranian regime is returning the favor as the chief sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian offshoot, Hamas. And Iran’s government is also the model of “a good government” for Egypt according to Kamal al-Halbavi, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Kamal al-Halbavi expressed gratitude to the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei​ for his support of the Egyptian revolution and said he hoped that Egypt would have a “good government, like the Iranian government, and a good president like Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is very brave.”

The Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi has defended Iran’s pursuit of nuclear technology and called for unity among Islamic nations in support of Iran and against the United States:

Iran is a Muslim country which all Muslims should defend while the US is an enemy of Islam that has already declared war on Islam under the disguise of war on terrorism and provides Israel with unlimited support.

In sum, the Obama administration’s engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood is not only potentially lethal to Israel. It is potentially lethal to the national security of the United States itself.

Joseph Klein

Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/04/the-new-egypt-we-will-never-recognize-israel/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.