By Jafar M Ramini
In all the years of the so-called Arab Summits the sum total of these gatherings has been failure, division and added burden on the shoulders of the populace.
As you may recall, the summit in Riyadh in 2007 produced what was known as the King Abdullah plan for a final solution to the Arab/Israeli conflict. And yet where are we now, five years later? The Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the Palestinians is more entrenched than ever and continues apace while our so-called brothers simply watch from the sidelines.
In the Summit Conference in Sirte 2010 those same Arab leaders stood up side by side in condemnation of Israel. The honorable exception was Col. Qaddafi who not only stood in condemnation of Israel but insisted that if we are to liberate Palestine we need more than words. Our resources, he said, especially our Arab oil, which belongs to all the Arabs, should be deployed to achieve our ultimate goal, which is the liberation of Palestine. We all know what happened to Col. Qaddafi. He simply had to go.
The architect of his demise was none other than the Zionist, racist Professor Bernard Levy of France, a close friend and ally of Mr. Sarkozy and an ardent admirer and supporter of Israel and the war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Are you, in the light of all this, finding the word ‘summit’ a total misnomer? Are you perplexed, like me, as to the choice of the location of this summit? Baghdad? Are they trying to say to us that despite the total destruction of Iraq everything is somehow normal there? We have been told that only fourteen Arab leaders are going to Baghdad so far. Whatever happened to the other eight?
Is ‘rats abandoning a sinking ship’ an appropriate phrase to use at this juncture? Is the exclusion of Syria just a snub to President Bashar Al Asad or is it part and parcel of the much talked about conspiracy to destroy the last bastion of Arab nationalism and resistance?
Nobody in their right mind would ever stand up in defence of any of the Arab leaders. In fact, if there was a good ship ‘Arabia’ I would shove them all, without exception, on board and personally conspire to scuttle the damn ship.
I have deliberately kept myself out of the debate about Syria so far for one simple, vital reason. The situation is, to say the least, murky. I am a Palestinian of a certain age and certain leanings and, as such, the whole of Syria - Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Agnostic, Atheist, Non-Conformist etc. etc. is dear to my heart.
It is all very well venting one's spleen out of frustration, but when the situation is so delicately balanced and is subjected to all sorts of currents, distortions and influences keeping one's own counsel seems to be the right and honorable thing to do.
Let me tell you a story:
Exactly a year ago I was invited to attend a dinner at the Security and Defence Forum in London, hosted by Lady Olga Maitland and the guest speaker was Dr. Sami Alkyami, the then Syrian Ambassador to the Court of St. James. In the room there were quite a few Syrian dear friends of mine and others who were mere acquaintances. The atmosphere was electric and Sami and his wife were the soul of courtesy and good manners. This particular evening was at the very start of the serious upheaval in Syria. I, for one, wondered what Sami would say when he stood up to speak after dinner. He was very eloquent and took the audience on a whimsical tour of Syria's history, culture and beauty. Nothing of significance was said about what was going on. A dear friend of mine who saw the expression of disappointment on my face took my hand and said in his beautiful Damascene cultured accent, 'Akhi Abu Nidal, khally Sami behammo - errijal zay elybali' mouss'. Or, in English, 'Let Sami be, he is in the position of a man who has just swallowed a knife.'
Friends, compatriots, fellow Arabs and interested parties, please, if you have nothing constructive or helpful to say that will deliver Syria and help our beloved brothers and sisters in Syria please keep your counsel. For believe me my friends, we have all swallowed a knife.
Which brings me neatly to what is in store for Syria, the country not the regime, at this forthcoming summit. A year ago when it all started I wrote on these pages, imploring President Bashar Al Asad to go down personally to Souk Al Hamedya and mingle amongst the people. As I recall, it was a Friday morning and I begged of him also to go to Al Omayyd Mosque and stand at the pulpit and instead of delivering a sermon ask for forgiveness for past mistakes and honestly promise tangible and meaningful reforms that would give the Syrian people a modicum of hope for a free and prosperous future. People who read what I have to say on these very pages will remember that I begged the same from Saif El Islam Qaddafi. Neither of these calls was heeded. We all know what happened to Libya since then and we can all read the signs and speculate on what mayhem there is still to be inflicted on Libya. As for Syria, the drums of war have been beating loud and clear. War that the Americans and Israelis in particular want to wage on Syria, covering their evil deeds by wrapping it with a flimsy cloak of legitimacy that is the approval of the Arab League.
This is why, my compatriots, I am filled with foreboding and fear, not only for Syria, but for the entire Arab/Muslim world. For, if Syria is attacked the blood in the streets of Syria will be Arab blood. Not American, not British, not French and especially not Israeli. Their blood is precious. Ours is cheap and not worth bothering about.
The intended ultimate target of this war is not actually Syria, per se, but is Iran. Those learned, corrupt leaders of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia took it upon themselves to wage this war against Iran as a proxy to the ambitions and plans of the USA and Israel.
I hope my premonition of doom and gloom will not come to pass. Although past experience of those self-serving, so-called Arab leaders and the interests of their ultimate masters in Washington and Tel Aviv makes feeling optimistic and hopeful a bit naïve.
To all the Arab leaders who are attending this summit, I have only this to say: Haven’t we, the Arab people paid enough? Haven’t we suffered enough? Is the glory of your clans to be built on the ruins of our people? If you have any conscience, if you have any remaining grains of honour left in you reflect and deliver Syria from the fate that fell on Libya.
“The real unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, without anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future.
But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present - they are real.”
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