The Doha Extraordinary Summit was conceived to concert measures after the attack by Israel on Qatar. While the expressions of support for Qatar were unanimous, as was the condemnation of Israel, no actual measures were proposed. It was not to be expected that a meeting with Egypt, the UAE, Oman, Morocco and Jordan in attendance would call for stronger measures against Israel, which is in a special relationship with the USA. Indeed, the aggrieved country’s Prime Minister, Sh Muhammad bin Abdur Rehman Al- Khalifa, was in the White House on the eve of the Summit, meeting Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and dining with President Donald Trump. However, the final Summit Resolution could not avoid some semblance of action, and said that relations with Israel could be reviewed.
None of the states which had recognized Israel even offered derecognition. It might be remembered that there has been a constant refrain over the decades since the Camp David Accords started the slow, still unfinished, process of recognition: that diplomatic relations would be used to further the Palestinian cause. That has culminated in the genocide in Gaza. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s proposal of a Arab-Islamic force may appear reasonable, but in this era of AI and missile warfare, how would it work to prevent further attacks? That there will be further attacks is no certainty, but it is a strong possibility, considering the impunity Israel seems to enjoy, combined with a lack of the morality that prevents bad behaviour most of the time. If a close US ally like Qatar could be attacked so wantonly, who is safe? The very presence of Israel is a challenge, not a matter of sympathy for an oppressed people, but a threat to all other states. Clearly, recognition has not worked. However, the alternatives are unappealing to the oil-rich monarchies which are supporting the USA, and have dialled down opposition to Israel on its say-so.
This Summit might be said to mark the demise of pan-Arabism, for the most that the entire Arab world could come up with in response to an attack on one of its own, is not even a slap on the wrists. Just as the Palestine cause may be said to have been destroyed by the Oslo Accords, and Pan-Islamism by the demise of the Ottoman Cailphate, so too has pan-Arabism, Arab solidarity, and any intention of joint action.
