Ever since the first Arab summit held in Egypt in May 1946 and the issuance of the first statement which stressed the explicit wish of the Arab states to ensure peace and the fact that Palestine is the cause of all the Arabs, the Arab region has been going through critical situations and diseases accompanying the staging of each new summit. The Arab leaders meet every single time to have their pictures taken, put forward their theories, deliver speeches, raise slogans and issue statements, following closed sessions featuring pleasantries at times and fights at others. They then disperse and bid each other farewell, while the developments are still heated and the Arab street still ablaze. I hope no one will come out to remind us of the “three no's summit" in Khartoum (No reconciliation. No recognition. No negotiations) following the June 1967 setback or Gamal Abdul Nasser's heroisms, or deafen us with the expired slogans of the Baathists and nationalists. For the last two years, the Syrian people have been suppressed and have seen their women slaughtered, their children butchered, their cities destroyed and pan-Arabism publically slain. And apparently, nothing has changed although the Arab spring has toppled major skulls and chairs. But no one likes to benefit from free lessons, rather to pay the bill in full before leaving in the worst way! The Arab summits have become a routine habit, anticipated by the leaders to deliver their speeches. In the meantime, the Arab populations do not miss them at all, after they lost hope in them and in their decisions and conclusions, considering that throughout 67 years they have failed to achieve one palpable step, even if in terms of the establishment of a common Arab market. Are these summits - which never offered the Arab populations anything - not disfigured despite the use of all the international “beauty products"? Indeed, they never served the Arabs' interests, dignity and value, as much as they helped enhance the image, relations and slogans of the ruler, although they are not valid even inside his own country. For how many years have we been hearing about the importance of joint Arab action? For how many years have we been hearing about rapprochement and the resolution of the inter-Arab files? For how many years have we been hearing about the necessity of establishing an efficient and influential Arab entity that would achieve the ambitions and aspirations of the Arab populations? Tomorrow and the day after, Doha will be hosting the 24th Arab summit. In the meantime, all the statements and comments have been identical to the ones which accompanied previous summits, namely the ones saying that it is being held in critical and exceptional circumstances and that there is optimism due to the participation of the leaders of all the Arab countries in regard to rapprochement between the Arab states over the files raised before the summit. The repetition of this same discourse is useless, which is why I hope that the situation will be different in Doha and that the summit will not be like previous ones, in which decisions were issued only to be buried the day following the end of the meeting. In order for the Arab fist to become one of iron, practical and urgent solutions should be drawn up to stop the bloodbath in Syria and save the people from a criminal regime assassinating them with aircrafts, tanks and chemical weapons. I also hope that the Palestinian cause is not tackled as long as the Palestinians are insisting on fighting and expanding their internal conflicts and division, so that they are left to their own devices to see what they are like after they tried reconciliation in most Arab capitals, then backed down and proceeded with their mudslinging instead of focusing on their cause and the regaining of the land! It might be better for the leaders to ask themselves in a closed session about what toppled Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, Zine el-Abidine and soon Bashar al-Assad. Indeed, overcoming the bitterness, frustrations and accumulations of inter-Arab relations is what will render the heated Arab issues that are on the summit's agenda important ones, capable of changing Arab reality, meeting the aspirations and hopes of the Arab populations and mobilizing the energies of the Arab countries to confront the challenges, threats and crises. This is especially true at the level of the devastating security and social problems that have transformed the region into a volcano, exploding in the form of sectarianism, denominationalism and regionalism, in addition to the exploitation by regional powers of the political and economic crises in more than one Arab country to achieve their interests. The Arab world cannot be transformed into a regional power enjoying autonomy, mechanisms and capabilities with slogans, speeches and statements, no matter how high their tone gets. Indeed, power can only stem from joint action, unified positions, social justice and full and undivided popular rights, in order to preserve the region's identity, stability and security. Otherwise, the people are rebelling and motivated, and they can shatter the security shackles and impose change! [email protected] twitter | @JameelTheyabi
