-OpEd-
CAIRO — Saudi Arabia has called for an Arab-Islamic summit this month to discuss “the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.” This comes despite the failure of a similar summit last year to achieve its main goal: to stop Israel’s “brutal and barbaric massacres against the Palestinian people.”
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It was notable that the previous summit in November 2023 spoke in its final communique about “imposing the immediate” delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and “protecting” and “enabling” international teams delivering and distributing aid, as well as providing support to UNRWA, the United Nations agency that provides aid for Palestinian refugees.
The communique also stressed the support of Egypt’s measures to “confront the consequences of Israel’s brutal aggression on Gaza,” as well as backing Egyptian efforts to ensure “immediate, permanent and sufficient delivery of aid.”
A year after the summit, Arab and Islamic regimes were unable to “impose” any practical measures to lift or ease Israel’s siege. Food and medicine trucks did not enter Gaza and, of course, international organizations’ crews were not “enabled” to cross into the Strip, because they simply would not find anyone to protect them.
Cynical self-interest
Meanwhile, the occupying state has used “systematic starvation” as a weapon to punish the defenseless people of Gaza simply for their attachment to their lands and their resistance to transfer plans, and to force the resistance factions to surrender and raise the white flag.
When the leaders met last year, the number of innocent victims in Gaza was 11,000 Palestinians, in addition to about 27,000 wounded. At that time, these leaders failed to force the United States and its allies to stop their military, financial and political support for Israel.
These countries allow Israeli and Western ships to pass through their waterways.
Nor did those who have ties with Israel dare to wave the card of severing diplomatic relations, with the exception of Jordan, which withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv.
What is heartbreaking is that some of these countries allow Israeli and Western ships to pass through their waterways, citing their international obligations, while others supply the entity with fuel. There are even reports of an increase in the volume of trade exchange between the “normalizing” Arab countries and Israel during the first half of this year.
To be clear — during that same period, Israel’s massacres against the Palestinians and Lebanese escalated with the number of overall deaths surpassing 46,000.
After last year’s summit failed to achieve its goals, the Arab leaders are now to meet in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, next week to “follow up and complete the efforts they made.”
Israel’s real plans
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, committed these crimes in Palestine and Lebanon only after he felt reassured that Arab and Muslim leaders would not lift a finger. And that included not implementing the decisions they made in last year’s summit communique.
In its place, they made mostly symbolic efforts of diplomacy that did nothing to “impose” anything on Netanyahu to stop the war and deliver humanitarian aid to the war victims.
Arab leaders wanted Israel to get rid of the Iranian-backed resistance groups.
Netanyahu’s message to the Arab leaders was to “stay silent.” He is aware of their true positions: a chance to eliminate Hamas, according to Bob Woodward’s latest book “War.”
Regardless of the accuracy of what the American journalist reported about what happened on October 7, all evidence has proven that most Arab leaders wanted Israel to get rid of the Iranian-backed resistance groups.
They believe that the victory of the resistance, whether in Palestine or Lebanon in that battle, would not only change the regional balance of power with Israel, but it could also affect the survival of their regimes that are hostile to the resistance and its axis.
Last year’s summit communique was issued only to throw dust in the eyes, so that the Arab leaders could find something to offer to their peoples who were horrified by Israel’s bloody aggression, just as they were horrified by the silence and failure of their regimes.
Now, more than a year after the aggression, the Arabs — both helpless and conspiring — have realized that Israel’s plans are not limited to getting rid of the resistance and its axis.
According to Netanyahu and leaders of his ruling coalition, they are also seeking to control and dominate those who encouraged the resistance or turned a blind eye to what it was doing in Palestine and then Lebanon, to turn them into tools that serve its Zionist project.
The three NOs summit
About six decades ago, and less than two months after the 1967 six-day war, the fourth Arab Summit was held in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, to discuss what the Arabs could do to confront the effects of the defeat and liberate the land that Israel occupied.
The summit resulted in “three NOs”: No Peace, No Negotiation, No Recognition of Israel. One of the most important decisions of that summit was to settle Arab-Arab differences and adhere to the Solidarity Charter issued at the Casablanca Summit, which would guarantee “the liberation of Arab lands whose recovery falls on all Arab countries.”
The six-day war prompted the leaders of the Arab countries to put aside their differences.
To this end, the Arab countries agreed to transform Arab oil into a weapon in the battle, whether by pumping it and directing its revenues to support the economies of the affected countries, or by stopping this pumping if necessary.
One of the direct and rapid effects of that summit was the reconciliation between the two greatest Arab leaders at the time; President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Saudi King Faisal bin Abdulaziz after years of simmering tensions over the Yemen war.
The six-day war prompted the leaders of the Arab countries to put aside their differences, coordinate their efforts, and devote their countries’ resources to transforming the defeat against Israel into a victory that would restore their dignity.
Arab solidarity was one of the most important factors that led to the victory of October 1973. Every country in the region had a role in what was achieved.
Cracks in Arab unity
Over six decades, the Arab structure of unity has suffered deep cracks: from Camp David to the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the establishment of American military bases in the region, then the U.S. invasion of Iraq, to the dismantling of a number of countries in the region as an indirect effect of the Arab Spring.
Then we reached the bottom where the United States pushed Arab countries to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, without compensation: the Abraham Accords.
In this atmosphere, the Palestinian resistance factions launched the Oct. 7 attack, and Israel responded with the most severe aggression ever on Gaza, the West Bank, and then Lebanon.
Now, after the Israeli plans have been exposed to everyone, will the Arabs take the initiative to take tangible measures before the fire reaches their countries? Or will they be resigned to be nothing more than tools and bases used to protect the State of Israel?
The first two actions to take: demand the freezing of Israel’s membership at the United Nations, and withdrawal any diplomatic recognition of Israel and commercial and political dealings with it.
