Sunday, July 22, 2012

Muslim Brotherhood meets with leaders of terrorist Hamas, strengthen ties

creeping

McCain, Boehner, Rubio,  coached by Ellison and sworn to by Napolitano will be denying this shortly and framing anyone who mentions it as dangerous. via Gaza PM praises Hamas leader’s meeting with Morsy | Egypt Independent.

Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh praised Egypt’s role in serving the Palestinian cause and said that Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy’s meeting with Hamas leaders on Thursday was “a fruit of the Egyptian revolution.”

Morsy met with a Hamas delegation headed by Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas’ political bureau, in the presidential palace on Thursday. Hamas described the meeting as “historic,” adding that it was a warm meeting.

Haniyeh said in a Friday sermon that the Arab revolutions would liberate Palestine from the Israeli occupation, stressing that Israel has no future on Palestinian lands.
He added that a high level of Islamic awareness in the region was behind the revolutions, which would achieve the desires of the people.


Haniyeh announced on Thursday that he would meet with Morsy next week.
Morsy and Meshaal on Thursday discussed Egypt’s efforts to support the Palestinian cause, the Palestinian reconciliation process and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, as well as ways of supporting the people of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was also in Cairo on a separate trip and met with Morsy Wednesday, amid reports that members of Hamas and Fatah would soon conduct their own meeting.

More, Morsi-Meshaal Meeting Elevates Hamas in Egypt-Palestine Relations:
“If you are Abbas, you are very concerned about the strengthening and emboldening of Hamas,” said David Schenker, director of the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He emphasized that the meeting between Morsi and Meshaal marked the first meeting between Hamas, the militant offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and an Egyptian head of state.

Symbolically, he said, it raises Meshaal to the level of president.
Though Meshaal is the political leader of Hamas, he leads from exile in Doha, Qatar, while Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh heads the Hamas administration in Gaza. Haniyeh is expected to meet with Morsi next week.

Schenker said one of the roles Morsi had prior to the fall of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was to serve as liaison between the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Palestinian branch of Hamas. “For the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood there is no institutional prejudice whatsoever against Hamas,” he said. “The atmospherics within these meetings must be shocking to members of Fatah, and not welcome.”

Both Schenker and Gerald M. Steinberg, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, said it was widely believed that a Morsi presidency would mean a dramatic change in Egyptian-Palestinian relations, particularly given the close relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Schenker said it remains unlikely that Morsi would put extreme pressure on Hamas to make concessions to Fatah.

These guys are in the same club, and they share a similar worldview vis-à-vis Israel and to a lesser extent vis-à-vis the U.S.,” Schenker said.

Taking bets on when Obama removes Hamas from the list of known terrorist groups: 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th year of his 2nd term? Or sooner?

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