Wordy end of a vociferous parley in Qatar

Empty resolutions and threats are not going to save dying Palestinians

“Every people in the world lives in a place. For Palestinians the place lives in them” (Danny Rubinstein – an Israeli writer) 

“We were herders of animals until we received the revelation, and then we became herders of other societies. We gave up the revelation and had become herds of other societies” (Allama Iqbal)

The extraordinary Arab-Islamic Summit held in Doha to counter Israel’s bombing of a government residential complex in the Leqtaifiya District of Qatar, where negotiations over a US initiated ceasefire proposal were in progress with representatives from Hamas, ended as usual in chest-thumping threats, condemnations and declarations against Israel, but without any concrete agenda of action to stop the genocide and expulsion of Palestinians from their homes before annexing Gaza and the West Bank to create Eretz Israel. 

Before preparing their responses to the bombing it seems that the delegates who attended the extraordinary summit never bothered to raise or discuss a very critical question, i.e., how did Israel manage to penetrate Qatari airspace given the fact that skies over Doha are under 24 hours surveillance by the US Air Base in Al-Ubaid, the largest military installation in the Middle East. It is the Head Quarter for US Central Command USCENTCOM, overseeing US military operations in the Middle East. The Integrated Air Missile Defence (IAMD) system provides aircover for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and UAE along with Jordan. IAMD is integrated into the US-Command-and-Control network operated by USCENTCOM from US base in Qatar. 

Diplomatic cover was American

And most importantly did Artificial Intelligence (AI) that rules US defence system also fail to detect those bomb carriers? It is unbelievable and it all points out that someone from Washington must have given the green signal for the attack. (For an extended discussion of this question, see Jamal Kanj, “The Doha Assassination, Emergency Summit, and Trump’s Double-Cross” in Counterpunch, September 15, 2025). As Rashid Khalidi pointed out after analysing the 1967 war, “the armoured spearheads on the ground were Israeli, while the diplomatic cover was American. It is an axis that is still in place today, over a half century later”. When Donald Trump casually commented that he just “felt bad” about the bombing it was clear that Israel acted on his approval. Shockingly, there was no mention of US complicity at all in the final communique of the summit. Why?

Actions speak louder than words. To start with, will those Arab signatories to the Trump initiated Abraham Accord withdraw their membership without delay? Will the Arab oil moguls cancel their trillion dollar investment in US promised to Trump when he visited their countries and start divesting the current investments also? Will they invest those funds instead to build economies of Global South for example? Will they also give up the petrodollars which enriched US banks since 1980s and join BRICS in creating an alternate currency to end the dominance of US$? While punishing US financially and economically trading sanctions should be undertaken without any delay against Israel. Which Arab country or countries are bold enough to initiate such measures? Empty resolutions and threats are not going to save dying Palestinians. Will the leaders at least learn from Spain which has cancelled a multimillion dollars’ worth arms deal with Israel? 

Arab states are puppet regimes

The problem is that all Arab states are puppet regimes put in power by the imperial powers, Britain first and US now, and the rulers rely on these powers for their own survival. The collapse of Arab Spring in 2011 was the latest demonstration of this imperial strategy. These regimes of sultans, emirs and kings have absolutely no support from their own people. To protect their power, they have a community of mullahs paid by the state to continue preaching the masses the medieval theme that tyranny of a monarch is preferable to anarchy of an elected government. US has supplied these regimes with enough weapons not to confront not any foreign power let alone Israel but to keep their own population under control. Given this US-Arab axis of what use are list of resolutions, declarations and threats from a vociferous summit? 

Now that UN has officially concluded that what is happening in Gaza since 2023 is a systematic genocide against Palestinians the only way to save those people and protect their land from being taken away by the Zionists is for the rest of the world to bring pressure upon their governments to initiate a resolution in UN for a multi-national armed intervention in Gaza. Global protests in all forms even from within Israel against US supported Israeli genocide of Palestinians and pulverisation of Gaza city with an ultimate agenda to annex Gaza and West Bank to create Eretz Israel is sufficient support for such a resolution. 

Earlier, Richard Falk, a past UN Human Rights rapporteur urged for armed intervention to break Netanyahu’s blockade and feed and save those starving Palestinians, but the Arab leaders never took any initiative in organising it. At least now will they play a key role in promoting a UN resolution for such intervention? No doubt, US will use all its usual tactics of amendments and delays as it did in 1967 at least to borrow time for Israel to complete its genocide and annexation. “If we ask for it and they don’t do it, it is their sin. If we don’t ask for it, it’s ours” (Craig Mokhier, ex-senior UN official resigned in 2023).

Almost a year ago when a Palestinian mother became so exasperated and angry after losing one of her children to an Israeli bomb, she raised her hands and shouted, “Shame on you Arabs. Wake up!” Now it is not her alone, but the entire humanity is shouting. Will the Arabs and their fellow Muslims wake up? You have been in slumber for nearly a millennium. It is your slumber that is causing nonstate actors like Hamas and Ansarullah to take up the cause of Palestine. 

Of what use are wordy and vociferous summits without action?

(The writer is a retired economist, W. Australia.)