Brotherhood livid over Israeli expansion plans

Abdul Jalil Mustafa | Arab News

AMMAN: The Muslim Brotherhood movement and its political arm, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), on Saturday called for a firm reaction on part of the Jordanian government to remarks by the speaker of the Israeli Knesset Reuven Rivlin backing the expansion of Israel to include territories on the east bank of River Jordan, which are under the sovereignty of the Hashemite Kingdom.

“The government’s delay in responding firmly to such recurrent and dangerous Israeli statements has encouraged Rivlin to speak in such a rude manner about violating our national sovereignty,” IAF executive bureau member Mohammad Zeyoud said in a statement.

“The Zionist entity is implementing a seriously expansionist blueprint based on a racial ideology which is being adopted by a rightist community that has given rise to an extremist leadership,” he said.

Zeyoud said that he was responding to a report by the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, which quoted Rivlin as supporting the idea of the foundation of the state of Israel on both banks of River Jordan as proposed by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, one of the founding fathers of the Zionist movement.

“Jabotinksy’s vision is now valid more than ever in Israel’s history,” Rivlin was quoted as saying in reply to the Israeli President Shimon Peres, who believed that Jabotinsky was “mistaken” in this respect.

Zeyoud also urged the Jordanian Parliament to live up to its responsibilities by initiating a move that leads to the “annulment” of the peace treaty that Jordan signed with Israel in 1994.