I think they were trying to get the Islamists on their side with this statement. OT writings are full of hideous violence, which was seized by Islam...without the adoption of the rest of Judaism. Islam is a syncretist cult.
That makes the current powers that be just as Islamist and as anti-Israel as the MB.
The world today is full of hideous violence. The Old Testament and even the New Testament puts it in context and does not justify it.