Report claims that the Muslim Brotherhood is the biggest threat to Israel

A report issued by the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University, the second biggest in Israel, claims that of all the political and ideological groups in the Arab and Islamic worlds, the Muslim Brotherhood poses the greatest threat to the Zionist state.

According to Liad Porat, who prepared “The Muslim Brotherhood and the challenges facing the peace between Egypt and Israel”, the Islamic movement is responsible for:

1. Resistance to American and Israeli policies.
2. Supporting the armed struggle against Israel and standing by the Palestinian resistance, with a focus on the role of President Morsi during last November’s Israeli assault on the people of Gaza, which the researcher believes was a strategic turning point in Israel’s relationship with Egypt.
3. Providing political cover for the resistance movements, particularly Hamas.
4. Recruiting the heritage and legacy of the past to justify its incitement for waging war on Israel, and its defence of kidnapped soldiers.
5. Its role in advancing the cause of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque and stressing their centrality to the Palestinian cause, which complicates the chances of reaching a political settlement to the conflict.
6. Resistance to normalisation with Israel.
7. Trying to create the conditions that would allow for the cancellation of the Camp David Peace Treaty at some time in the future.

The report has been released at a time when there is a negative propaganda campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in Palestine. Paradoxically, both are also accused by some opponents of being agents working for the benefit of Israel and the United States in the region.