Summit Decisions in Qatar

Author: سهيل كيوان

An Arab-Islamic summit is set to be held in Doha tomorrow, Monday, to discuss the Israeli aggression against the State of Qatar. This call has been made in an atmosphere of anger over Israel's disregard for Qatar's sovereignty, the country that hosts the negotiations and the Hamas delegation.

The assassination attempt presents a red flag to Arab countries that consider America a friend and protector, as it shows that America does not value or respect these relationships, despite the trillions of dollars it extorts from the countries of the region, and despite most Arab countries establishing trade relations and security coordination with Israel, as well as peace agreements and preparations for new normalization agreements, and even some colluding with the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Netanyahu and Trump do not attribute any importance to the Arabs, their services, or their "donations".

This summit is supposed to discuss how to respond to the Israeli aggression against the Qatari mediator who has successfully brokered previous deals. But will the response be genuine or just another ritual addition to previous summits?

If Israel had succeeded in assassinating the Hamas leadership in Qatar, Qatar would have been accused of complicity, for allegedly being the one who leaked the time and place of the leadership meeting, and this goal is no less significant – from Netanyahu's perspective – than the assassination itself, as it implies that all Arab countries are concerned with eliminating Hamas, including Qatar, which hosts some of its leaders.

In response to the failure of the operation, Netanyahu threatened Qatar again, saying: either you arrest the Hamas leaders and put them on trial or we will work to dispose of them ourselves. He is reassured, not only because America supports him politically and militarily, but also because he relies on Arab and Islamic leaders who will do their utmost to drain any serious decisions of their substance. Leading this "moderating" trend is Egypt, which seeks to prove that it is a reliable ally, even after announcing a reduction in security coordination with Israel.

The stance of Iran, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, or Tunisia is of little importance. What matters in this summit are the positions of the countries that have direct or indirect relations with Israel, especially Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, and Sudan. As long as these countries are guaranteed to maintain their position without reaching the point of severing relations, condemnation will merely be another ritualistic matter that neither advances nor delays.

So are the Arabs this weak, so much so that they are unable to make a political decision that hurts Netanyahu and awakens the Israeli public from its intoxication with power? Can they threaten Netanyahu and his fascist government with a genuine threat, that what has been built over decades of peace agreements, normalization, and economic and military cooperation with Israel may collapse if it does not stop its genocide in Gaza and its disregard for the sovereignty of the region's countries?

The Arabs are not weak; they possess sources of power that only great nations have: natural resources, money, human capital, and vast spaces. However, these energies are dormant and require leadership that possesses the courage, stance, principles, and intentions.

The Arab regimes find themselves in an embarrassing position; they are unable to protect themselves from Israel, America does not protect them, and they are neither at peace nor in the same trench with their peoples.

The summit is expected to condemn "the Israeli aggression against the sister State of Qatar in the strongest terms of condemnation," and to decide to form a team to pursue legal actions regarding the assault on Qatar's sovereignty, and to demand the international community to exert more efforts to stop the genocide and displacement in Gaza, open crossings for humanitarian aid, halt the escalation, and return to the "two-state solution" path.

There is a strong likelihood of suspending military and security coordination with Israel, which Egypt has paved the way for by announcing a "reduction in security cooperation." But what does that mean? It means withholding some information that Egyptian intelligence possesses about Palestinian and Arab leaderships and their movements, which facilitated assassination operations under the pretext of "counter-terrorism." This does not mean halting security coordination, but merely signaling that what Israel is doing is unacceptable, which is the same diplomatic expression used by allied and supportive European countries for Israel.

Do not expect anything new from the new Arab-Islamic summit, other than rephrasing repetitive and well-known clauses. These are countries incapable of making the decisions that countries far away in Latin America and Europe have made, and they even prevent their peoples from expressing their anger, as many peoples around the world do.