They gathered last week at the Arab League leaders and Islamic cooperation organisation Doha to show support in Qatar in the wake of an Israeli strike at a Hamas leaders’ meeting in the city.
When the summit ended, they issued a communica of words that denounced Israel and reaffirmed solidarity with Qatar. However, what the communica- tion lacked was concrete actions.
It is a useless movement, emphasizing that great wealth has not been translated into true power. Despite the great advances made by countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, they either can (or unwillingly) do nothing to end the war in Gaza, Israel and its main supporter, the United States.
How much has it changed?
Fifty-two years ago, in October 1973, the oil ministers of the nation that formed the organization of the Arab Oil Exporting Country (OAPEC) met in Kuwait, and wars escalated between Israel, Syria, Egypt and the world fell on the brink of a nuclear showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union.
In Kuwait, the OAPEC minister led by Saudi Arabia decided to cut oil production and impose export restrictions on the US and Israel and others who support its war efforts. This was the beginning of an Arab oil embargo that helped drive the Western economy into a recession.
The war, which began on October 6, 1973, began with a coordinated Egyptian and Syrian attack on Israeli forces occupying Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Syria’s Golan Heights, and ended 19 days later. OAPEC’s oil weapons were involved in the movement to accelerate towards a ceasefire.
But today, as Israel tightens its push towards Gaza city, the death toll in Gaza reached almost 65,000 (most of the victims are women and children), and the UN committee determined that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, so many of the same countries that strengthened Israeli support in 1973 were in charge of supporting Israel.
“The Arab government in the last century has not achieved full sovereignty,” explains Rami Kouri, a veteran analyst at American University in Beirut. “They rely on foreign states for their well-being, protection, or survival.”
And ironically, even that addiction didn’t spare them. In 2022, the US designated Qatar as a major non-Natal ally, with Qatar hosting the largest US air force base in the Middle East.
At best, the rulers we met in Doha on Monday will act as supply pans, relying on the unpredictable whims of the US president interacting with Israeli leaders. “We look forward to … U.S. strategic partners will use their influence on Israel to stop this action,” said the state-run Al Bayan newspaper in Dubai, Jaysem Mohamed Al Budaiwi, executive director of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The United States “has leveraged and influenced Israel. It’s a time when this leverage and influence will be used.”
However, such hopes seem to be based on expectations that are more unreal than reality. In early August, President Trump said in Gaza that he would “go to Israel.”
And Israeli forces said they launched a ground operation in Gaza city early on Tuesday. The Doha Summit Communique did not stop them.
