"Purifying the Arab land"

As much as "moderate" Arab countries try to present the West with the impression that their problem with Israel is merely the "occupation" from 1967, it doesn't take too much digging to find out the true aim, even today - the utter destruction of Israel.

Today's proof comes from a throw-away sentence in the Yemen Times, mourning the loss of its parliamentary speaker Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hussein Al-Ahmar.

Sheikh Al-Ahmar is one of a few personalities that gained sincere respect and highest consideration from all the Yemeni people, as the deceased proved to be ‘a man of national compromise’, thanks to his key role and direct contribution to resolving multiple national issues and defending the Yemeni Revolution since its early stages....

Throughout his life of struggle, the late sheikh played an effective role in addressing issues of the Arab and Islamic nations. Despite difficulties encountering his efforts, the man has been ever present with an effective contribution to addressing all the vital issues of high concern to the Islamic world. Palestine, for instance, had been always present and immortalized in the man’s mind until he passed away. Over years, the man used to give a top priority to purifying the Arab land from the Zionist occupation and dominance.

The idea of an Aryan-like "purification" of "Arab land" is not assumed to be objectionable or controversial; it is a given that the Yemen Times readership will, in total, agree with that aim. The existence of a Jewish state is considered a pollution of the great Arab nation, something that must be excised completely. Almost certainly, all Arabs would prefer to see the entire country uninhabited than to have Jews control it. It is not a political issue nor an issue of putative "justice" - one doesn't use the word "purification" in a political or judicial context. It is Arab shame that drives their thinking, and everything else is a smokescreen to justify what is in the end a visceral hatred.

This is what can be found not far beneath the surface of all Arab thinking; perhaps as a temporary measure they will insist publicly for the end of the "occupation" but their real aims are pretty easy to still discern, as they were before 1967.