They say that those who don't expect much will not be disappointed much. The Damascus summit's outcome may have been just like any other Arab summit before it, but its buildup and goings-on are by far unique. It is like any other summit in that it came out with more or less recycled resolutions about Lebanon, Iraq and the Arab-Israeli peace process: Resolve the situation in Lebanon. Stabilize Iraq. Make Israel accept the peace initiative. We've heard all that before. But this one was different. The very place in which it was held – Damascus – is right in the eye of the storm brewing over and in Lebanon. And Lebanon, for all intents and purposes, didn't send a single soul to Damascus for a summit that was supposed to be all about it. It doesn't get much more surreal than that. Syria keeps saying that it has long since wrapped up business in Lebanon. The Lebanese just can't get themselves to agree on electing a president. The Arab summit didn't change that. Then there were the boilerplate issues. The summit's communiqué said that training Iraqi troops and police should be speeded up to get the Americans and their allies out of there. But that's really missing the point: The Americans will only get out of their own when they want to, and right now, they don't want to. As for the peace process, the summit rehashed the Arab League's peace offer, and the Israelis are still not buying it. Other than that, the two sides don't have much to negotiate over, especially at a time when the Palestinians themselves are at each other's throats. This, then, couldn't be further from a be-all, end-all summit. Although Syria took it upon itself to host the summit and help resolve the Lebanese issue, it was clear from the get-go that it wasn't about to budge from its position. The Iraqis – all of them, no doubt – want their country to be free, stable and united. But at this point, it's not really up to them. The peace initiative is just that: peaceful, fair and balanced. But with the Palestinians themselves losing the ball, Israel has absolutely no reason to go for it. None of us expected much of this year's Arab summit, but all of us were utterly disappointed. __
