Arab Summit

Foreign Policy reports on the continuing annual mockery that is the Arab League Summit, which is held in Tripoli this year amid declining attendance by Arab leaders and low expectations by foreign observers. As the short article notes, given the deteriorating relationship between the U.S. and Israel, it would seem that this is a particularly opportune moment for Arab leaders to mount a renewed diplomatic effort for or against the Arab Peace initiative. In my view, while Palestine remains (perhaps vaguely) a unifying theme for Arabs everywhere, the divergence between Arab countries--politically, socially, economically--has become too wide for there to be any Arab united front in a meaningful way, and this will forever hinder any progress in these summits.