Robert Mugabe

The Arab League's annual meetings are typically obscure affairs, because no one in the West generally cares much what a bunch of phobic, unelected sheiks have to say to one another. But now that those phobic, unelected sheiks find themselves mulling over a high-profile peace proposal floated by Saudi Arabia, things are different.

The future of the proposal, a warmed-over version of a plan floated by Saudi Arabia 20 years ago, is bleak. As laid out yesterday by the Saudi delegation in Beirut, the plan would see the Arab world offering Israel normal relations. In return, Israel would withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, permit the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and allow the return of all Palestinian refugees and their descendants to Israel's core pre-1967 land mass.

This last bit is a deal-breaker. Flooding Israel with millions of seethingly hostile Arabs would destroy the Jewish state from within. Ariel Sharon would just as soon unilaterally disarm as agree to such a "peace" proposal.

All the Arab delegations in Beirut know this -- though they may sign on to the deal anyway in a cynical attempt to demonstrate peaceful intentions. Alternatively, such rogue nations as Iraq, Syria and Libya may denounce the plan in order to demonstrate their anti-Israel bona fides. We note the conference has already half-dissolved in bickering. Egypt and Jordan both refused to send delegations for their own narrow reasons, while the delegations from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon have fallen to ugly sniping over Lebanon's decision to block video transmission of a speech from Yasser Arafat. This is what passes for statesmanship in the Arab world: A lot of empty talk about unity after which the sheiks key each others' Rolls-Royces in the parking lot.

Which brings us back to the utterly pointless nature of Arab summits. Let us review the final communiqué from last year's meeting in Jordan.

The first substantive resolution deals with the Palestinians: "The Arab leaders take pride in the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their heroic intifada in the face of fierce aggression waged by Israel." Does that pride cover suicide bombers, such as the one who killed at least 19 innocent civilians yesterday? Yup. The next resolution praises the "spirit of sacrifice" that animates Palestinian "martyrs." The next resolution bashes Israel, as does the next. The one after that bashes the United States -- because of its support for Israel.

The next resolution bashes Israel. Then comes one demanding the UN Security Council "try Israeli war criminals who have committed massacres." Saddam Hussein, who gassed 5,000 of his own citizens, signed on to that one. So did Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose father slaughtered 20,000 people in a single town.

Then come 12 more resolutions about the evil Israelis and the martyred Palestinians, a resolution proclaiming the innocence of the Libyans who blew up Pan Am Flight 103, a resolution supporting the genocidal government of Sudan and a resolution in favour of free trade and investment -- among Arabs and other Muslims; Israel, naturally, should be boycotted.

Promoting terrorism, defending genocide, launching demagoguery against Israel: This, according to Resolution No. 4, is how the Arab world must tackle the "vital issues" affecting it.

Other approaches come to mind.

Let us start with politics. It is important to remember that the nation Arabs unanimously demonize has something the whole Arab world does not: democracy. There are 12 democratically elected Arab MPs in Israel's Knesset. Looking beyond the Arab world's various Potemkin parliaments, that's 12 more than in the whole of the Arab Middle East combined. Of the 192 nations in the world, 45% are classified as "free" by Freedom House, a non-partisan U.S. organization that promotes democracy. Among Arab nations, the figure is zero.

In this regard, it is notable that the Arab summit comes on the heels of a Commonwealth meeting in Australia where Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe was properly censured. Yet Zimbabwe at least has a bona fide opposition party. If Mr. Mugabe were at the Arab summit, this political leper of the civilized world would be the most democratically legitimate leader in the room.

In the fields of science, education and economic development, the situation is just as bad. In Saudi Arabia, the richest nation in the Arab world and one that often fancies itself its intellectual leader, schools are churning out Islamic studies majors by the thousands. They can cite scripture to prove Jews are apes, but ask them to design a Web page or fix a cellphone and they'll refer you to one of their Asian guest workers. News on the Arab League's own Web site hasn't been updated in four months.

Arabs outnumber Jews in the Middle East by 50:1. Yet there are more dot-coms and successful high-tech companies in Tel Aviv than in the whole of the Arab League.

Speaking to a conference on science and technology attended by ministers from Muslim nations in February, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf put it best for Islamic nations as a whole: "Today, we are the poorest, the most illiterate, the most backward, the most unhealthy, the most unenlightened, the most deprived and the weakest of all the human race."

The Islamic world's collective GNP, Gen. Musharraf noted, is US$1.2-trillion, about the same as California.

But don't expect much self-criticism in Beirut. Nowhere in last year's Arab League resolutions, and nowhere on this year's agenda, are there topics such as "Democracy: Why don't we have it?" Instead, the Arab League is mired in petty territorial disputes, whitewashing terrorism, diplomatic ego-tripping and an obsessive morality play involving Israel and the Palestinians. Not only aren't the Arab states going to solve the Arab-Israeli problem in Beirut -- they aren't going to get anything else done either.