Few things in life- first dates, certain church services- have of much ritualized pointlessness as the annual Arab Summit. It is a parade of forced smiles, empty promises, grand, boring speeches, and zero progress on any issues.
The summit, controversialy held in Damascus, failed to make any headway on the most pressing issue in the Arab world- the Lebanese crisis (I see this as being more potentially explosive and unravelling than Iraq or the never-ending Israel-Palestinian crisis). The reason, obviously, is that it was held under the good graces of the prime stumbling block in Lebanese politics- the Assad regime.
It is a tragic joke, and sums up the futility of the summits. Lebanon is on everyone's mind, it is an Arab crisis, ties into the general concern the Arab world has over a rising Iran, and the issue was off the table. An Arab League is a great idea- like ASEAN, the EU, AU, etc- it is a forum for countries facing similar issues to come together and solve them. But the back-biting, mutual suspicion, decades-old grudges and poison atmosphere preclude any progress. It is a rare and somewhat delightful occurrence when Moammar Qadaffi is the voice of reason.
Here is an editorial from the Middle East Times decrying the inanity of these meetings. Like the summits themselves, the editorials follow the same pattern, year after stultifying year. It doesn't mean they are a bad read, and contain relevant information, but with only a few altered words these editorials could be run year after year.
I’d like to thank Kevin Nolan for his insightful posts from Palestine. Hopefully, we can keep having them up.
