Muslim Brotherhood: ‘We are against Zionism’

Mohamed Badie, chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, speaks during an interview in Cairo on Dec. 21, 2010.

Spokesman for the Egyptian group says it won’t commit to maintaining peace treaty, recognition of Israel.

A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt on Thursday evening repeatedly refused to commit to maintaining the peace treaty with Israel, or even recognizing Israel, if the Brotherhood becomes a player in the future governance of Egypt.

Asked on CNN if his organization would support the maintenance of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Mohamed Morsy, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, dodged a direct answer but said Israel had failed to honor the treaty. He said it would be up to the Egyptian parliament to decide on the fate of the treaty, and that the parliament would reflect the will of the people.

Asked next if an Egypt with a Muslim Brotherhood component in government would even recognize the state of Israel, Morsy again evaded a direct answer despite being pressed several times. “It’s ridiculous to ask about the future,” he said at one point, and then responded with the question: “Does Israel recognize a Palestinian state?”

He also accused Israel of “shedding the blood of the Palestinians for more than 60 years.”

Morsy added that the Brotherhood “are not against the Jews. We are against Zionism. We are against torturing the Palestinian people.”

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http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=206725

Gaza Rocket Hits Near Kindergarten, Israeli Strikes Wound Six

Israel’s air force struck at least eight different targets in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, wounding six people, and Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel that hit near a kindergarten, injuring two.

The situation is “fragile and explosive,” Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, told a parliamentary committee yesterday, according to the army website. Israel has stepped up operations in Gaza in response to “terrorists’ decision to intensify their activity,” Ashkenazi said.

About 15 mortar shells and rockets have hit Israel since Monday, the army said. The upturn in violence came as Israeli- Palestinian peace negotiations remained stalled and reconciliation talks between the Islamic Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority that runs the West Bank are frozen.

Hamas “is saying we are still here,” said Gerald Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar Ilan University outside Tel Aviv, adding that he expected “low-level escalation over the next few weeks” and nothing more than that.

Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union, refuses to recognize or negotiate with Israel. The Islamic movement seized control of Gaza in 2007 after winning parliamentary elections a year earlier, ending a partnership government with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.

Mortar Attacks

Since the beginning of 2010, more than 200 rockets and mortar shells have been fired into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip.

The attack in southern Israel came after warplanes struck seven targets in Gaza early yesterday, the army said in a text message to journalists. Israel launched another strike in the afternoon, hitting what it said was a “Hamas terror activity center.”

In Gaza, Adham Abu Silmeya, spokesman for the Hamas-run Health Ministry’s emergency service, said two Palestinian militants and four civilians were wounded in Israeli air strikes.

Ronit Gil, a preschool teacher in Kibbutz Zikim, the collective community where the rocket fell, said she was getting out of her car and walking to the kindergarten when the air siren went off.

“I heard the boom,” Gil said on Army Radio. “Things are very tense here.”

A teenager and an adult were injured in the attack, the army said.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-21/gaza-rocket-strikes-near-israeli-kindergarten-as-violence-grows.html

Argentina Joins Brazil in Recognizing Palestinian State

Argentina's government has announced that it recognizes the Palestinian territories as an independent state within their pre-1967 borders, following a similar move days earlier by neighboring Brazil.

The Argentine foreign ministry said Monday that President Cristina Fernandez had informed her Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, of the decision in a letter.

The ministry said the recognition is in response to a request made by Mr. Abbas during a visit to Argentina last year. It comes three days after Brazil's recognition, also in response to a similar request.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Monday that he expects Uruguay and Paraguay to recognize Palestinian statehood in the next few days, followed by Bolivia and Ecuador.

Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said more than 100 countries have recognized Palestine as a state within the borders it had before Israel seized control of the West Bank in 1967.

Israel's foreign ministry called Argentina's announcement "regrettable," and said it would not change the situation between Israel and the Palestinians.

U.S. lawmakers last week had condemned Brazil's recognition as "severely misguided" and "regrettable."

The announcements by the South American countries come as Middle East peace talks remain suspended. The Palestinians withdrew from direct negotiations when Israel in September refused to extend a temporary freeze on new settlement construction in the West Bank.

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http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Argentina-Joins-Brazil-in-Recognizing-Palestinian-State-111418479.html