Mohamed Badie, leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, called for the purification and cleansing of Palestine through jihad in a July 5 sermon. He also told the audience that Jews' desire to destroy Islam and therefore, Muslims need to be proud of the jihad against them.

"Thus every Muslim must strive to purify it from the hands of usurpers and cleanse Palestine from the clutches of the Occupation - that is an individual duty on all Muslims," he said. "They must wage Jihad with their money and lives and free it, and free its prisoners, male and female … and enable all of the displaced to return to their homeland, their homes, and their possessions."

The return of all Palestinian refugees to Israel would spell the demographic doom of the Jewish state, aside from the violence Badie advocated.

Badie's colleague, Mohamed Morsi, is Egypt's new president. As we noted after a similar speech last month, Badie's rhetoric raises questions about Morsi's ability to moderate the Islamist group's beliefs and behavior.

In the July 5 sermon, Badie also said that the Jews aligned themselves with those pretending to be Muslims, classically identified as the Hypocrites. "As for the Hypocrites, the Jews tried as is their custom to make the Muslims question their faith through intrigues, strife and spreading toxins, instructing their fellow hypocrites to spread rumors among the Muslims," Badie said.

He also claimed that because "Jews gathered from all parts of the earth in the name of an alleged right to their illusory Temple" in order to create Israel, it was time for the Muslims to take their religion seriously and fight them.

"Has not the time come for word of the Muslims to come together and unite for what is supported by verses from the Book of God and Hadith with the guidance of the Messenger?" he asked rhetorically. "And do not be ashamed to declare Jihad in the Way of God; for in it is your life and your glory, and the exit of the occupiers from your land, and the return of your holy places, and the dissemination of safety and security throughout your homes."

Despite the group's violent speeches and support from other Islamist organizations, the Brotherhood's political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, has successfully marketed itself as a nonviolent group to its Western allies. But the continued inflammatory rhetoric raises questions about the Brotherhood's true intentions, if not by motivating Egypt to attack Israel then certainly in individual attacks carried out against the Jewish state.