alarabiya.net - Wednesday, 02 January 2013 - Israel will not exist within a decade, says Muslim Brotherhood official - In a perceived attempt to temper controversial remarks made earlier in the week, a senior Egyptian official who also serves as an adviser to President Mohammed Mursi said on Tuesday that Israel will cease to exist within a decade.

During an interview with private Egyptian television channel ONTV, Essam el-Erian, the deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, attempted to explain a previous statement he had made, in which he invited Egypt-born Jews to their home country and leave Israel to the Palestinians.

But in the latest of a series of inflammatory comments from the Brotherhood official, Erian said: the “ideology of Zionism” had ended in failure and that “Palestine’s occupiers” should leave to make way for the return of Palestinians. 

“Jewish occupiers of the territory of historic Palestine are an obstacle to the Palestinians’ right of return,” he said. “Anyone who can read the future can see that this project has a decade, less than a decade to go, and it is our faith that the people of Palestine can then return to Palestine.”

egyptindependent.com - Tue, 01/01/2013 - President Mohamed Morsy's administration is not responsible for recent comments by a Muslim Brotherhood leader encouraging the return of Egyptian Jews from Israel, spokesperson Yasser Ali stressed Tuesday. Ali refused to comment on Freedom and Justice Party deputy Essam al-Erian's 27 December statement predicting the demise of Israel within 10 years, and calling on Jews living there to return to their original countries, including Egypt. "These statements represent a personal point of view," Ali said, adding that the president's advisers do not speak on behalf of the administration. Shura Council spokesperson Ahmed Fahmy also said Erian's comments do not represent either the council or the Freedom and Justice Party. The party recently made Erian majority leader of the Shura Council.