Media watchdog group
MEMRI published Thursday additional statements made by Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi before entering office, in which he accused US President Barack Obama of lying in his 2009 Cairo speech and urged Muslims “to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews.”
MEMRI published Thursday additional statements made by Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi before entering office, in which he accused US President Barack Obama of lying in his 2009 Cairo speech and urged Muslims “to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews.”
“One American president after another – and
most recently, that Obama – talks about American guarantees for the
safety of the Zionists in Palestine. [Obama] was very clear when he
uttered his empty words on the land of Egypt. He uttered many lies, of
which he couldn’t have fulfilled a single word, even if he were sincere –
which he is not,” said Morsi referring to Obama’s “A New Beginning”
speech, which he delivered on June 9, 2009, in Cairo University and in
which he called for improved understanding and relations between the
Muslim world and the West and for peace between Israel the Palestinians.
Morsi’s remarks came from a speech he made in
2010 when he was a leading Muslim Brotherhood figure. The remarks were
revived when an Egyptian TV show aired them last week to highlight and
mock Morsi’s current policies.
In the same address, Morsi said: “Dear
brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on
hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them.
They must be nursed on hatred. The hatred must continue.”
The new quotes found, translated, reposted and transcribed by
the Middle East Media Research Institute, came out hours after the
Obama administration issued a statement saying the Egyptian presidency’s
clarification over past anti-Jewish and anti-Israel comments is welcome
but not enough to ease the White house’s concerns.
The statement by President Morsi’s office
rejected discrimination and incitement to violence based on religion.
The State Department called it “an important first step” but said the US
continues to look for Morsi and other Egyptian leaders to demonstrate a
commitment to religious tolerance and Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.
The US has said Morsi’s 2010 remarks
— in which he urged hatred of Jews and called Zionists “pigs” and
“bloodsuckers” while he was a leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood — are
“deeply offensive” and need to be repudiated.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland
would not say if Washington is demanding that Morsi personally repudiate
the remarks, but she made clear the US needs to see more than the
statement from his office to be convinced he no longer holds to the
earlier views.
“From our perspective, that statement was an
important first step to make clear that the type of offensive rhetoric
that we saw in 2010 is not acceptable, not productive and shouldn’t be
part of a democratic Egypt,” she told reporters. “That said, we look to
President Morsi and Egyptian leaders to demonstrate in both word and in
deed their commitment to religious tolerance and to upholding all of
Egypt’s international obligations.”
On Wednesday, Morsi sought to defuse
Washington’s anger over his past remarks, telling a group of visiting
U.S. senators that his comments were taken out of context and were a
denunciation of Israeli policies and not Israel itself or the Jewish
people, according to a spokesman. The spokesman said Morsi told the
lawmakers that a distinction must be made between the two.
Later Wednesday, after the State Department
declined to comment on the spokesman’s explanation, Morsi’s office went
further by releasing an English-language statement that said “the
president strongly believes that we must respect and indeed celebrate
our common humanity and does not accept or condone derogatory statements
regarding any religious or ethnic group.”
Nuland said Thursday that her comments applied to that statement and not the spokesman’s remarks.
The flap is a new twist in Morsi’s attempts to
reconcile his background as a veteran of the Muslim Brotherhood — a
vehemently anti-Israel and anti-US group — and the requirements of his
role as head of state, which include keeping the strategic relationship
with Washington, which wants Egypt to continue to honor its 1979 peace
deal with Israel.
Morsi has promised to abide by Egypt’s 1979
peace treaty with Israel and has continued security cooperation with
Israel over the volatile Sinai Peninsula and their border. In November,
Morsi brokered a truce between the Jewish state and Gaza’s Hamas rulers
in November, a feat that won him warm praise from the Americans.
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