The Arab League will convene next Saturday in Libya to discuss several issues facing Arab countries. The issue of the Palestinian reconciliation and Israel’s latest plans to take over Jerusalem will be the highest on their agenda. Iran, will also be among the talking points.
The common denominator between all the attendees in the Arab League summit is their love for power and disservice to their people. The Attendees will be looking to give credibility and legitimacy to whatever course of action the PLO decides to take. Two characteristics Arab Leaders lack. Among the Arab leaders that will be attending next week’s summit are: Abdelaziz Bouteflika (Algeria) 11 Years in power; Zine El Abine Ben Ali (Tunisia) 23 Years; Muammar al Ghadafi (Libya) 41 years; Hosni Mubarak (Egypt) 29 years; Bashar al-Assad (Syria) 10 years; Omar al-Bashir (Sudan 17 years); to name just a few.
The leaders of these countries are supposed to be presiding over republics, where presidential elections take place every few years. But due to a concert of factors, namely, the Arab’s street sense of powerlessness to demand free and fair elections, and the political support that few world powers (e.g. USA, France, Britain) bestow on Arab regimes, we see Arab leaders able to extend heir term beyond the constitutional limit (e.g. Egypt) or blatantly, a leader assign one of his sons as an heir of the presidency. There are also those who hide behind the cloak of the monarchy system (e.g. Saudi Arabia) to legitimize their grip to power.
The Arab League, which was formed in 1945 to safeguard the interest of Arab countries and serve as a collaboration mechanism between member states, has largely served as an institution, where leader of coup d’etat and fraudulent elections get their international legitimacy.
How does the Arab League affect the Palestinians?
The Prime Minister of Syria in 1948, Khaled al-Azem, in his memoirs, published in 1973, listed what he thought were the reasons for the Arab failure in 1948: ” … the fifth factor was the call by the Arab governments to the inhabitants of Palestine to evacuate it and leave for the bordering Arab countries …. We brought destruction upon a million Arab refugees by calling on them and pleading with them to leave their land.”
The past and the current Arab governments have never aided the Palestinians in their struggle for a country. As history shows, the Arab governments involvement has had negative consequences on the Palestinian plight. The Palestinians should learn from their history and move toward self-reliance to solve their dispute with Israel. The Palestinians must reconcile their differences between the PLO and Hamas and move forward towards a new strategy to manage their conflict with Israel.