WarSclerotic

The Islamic Jihad movement has called on the Freedom and Justice Party’s Essam el-Erian to resign from his role as adviser to President Mohammed Morsi and to apologize to the Egyptian people for his statement asking Egyptian Jews to leave Israel and to reclaim their properties back at home, the Egypt Independent reported Friday.

Erian had triggered controversy over his remarks this week when he said this would pave the way for the Palestinians to “regain their occupied land.”

Dr. Essam el-Erian, a senior Muslim Brotherhood official and adviser to the Egyptian president, called on Jews who left Egypt to return, as “Israel will be destroyed within a decade.”

Speaking to the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat from Cairo, El-Erian called on Egypt’s Jews “to leave historic Palestine and return to the country from which they came,” and predicted “the demise of the State of Israel within 10 years,” the paper reported.

He also blamed President Nasser for deporting the Jews after the establishment of Israel.

Reaction to El-Erian’s statements was furious. “We shall fight them vigorously if they return, especially the Egyptian-Israeli Jews,” said Mohamed Abou Samra, the leading figure in the Islamic Jihad movement. “Islamic Shariah says they deserve to be killed,” he told the Egypt Independent.

“Erian is violating religion to be a national hero for the Jews at the expense of the Islamists,” he added. “And the Brotherhood’s denouncement of his remarks was too mild.”

“They will destroy the economy and foment sedition,” he said. “Their return will be over our dead bodies.”

“We will continue fighting the Jews until the liberation of Palestine or Doomsday,” he said.