From Rabat to Muscat, from Cairo to Amman and Doha, everybody knows the famous adage attributed to the Arab thinker Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406): ‘Arabs have agreed to always disagree.’ It is often quoted to bemoan the rivalries, divisions and conflicts that have peppered the history of North Africa and the Middle East since the mid-20th century. But Israel’s military operation in Gaza has disproved the maxim: this time, the Arab League’s 22 member states are all in agreement not to lift a finger.

Beyond the grandiose tirades and pontificating final statements, each ‘urgent’ meeting ratifies only the league’s inaction. It is too tempting to picture this assembly (excellencies, corpulencies, marshal-presidents, rebels-turned-honourables, men elected in dubious landslides or by the slimmest of margins) at its large round table, conversing with furrowed brows before condemning Israel’s depiction of the war as ‘self-defence’ and demanding, of course, that the country ‘immediately abolish these brutal and inhumane measures’ (11 November 2023).

And what else? Threats of a military response? Calls for international sanctions on Israel like those Russia faced after invading Ukraine? A motion supporting South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stop Israel’s ethnic cleansing or even genocide in Gaza? A radical re-examination of the normalisation process and ‒ why not? ‒ severing of diplomatic ties? Cutting Gulf sovereign wealth fund investment in the US to discourage bomb and ammunition deliveries to Israel? An oil embargo, as in 1973 after the Yom Kippur war? La shey! None of the above.

This tendency to equivocate is hardly new. In 2018, in another urgent decision following much hot air, the League announced it would develop a ‘strategic plan’ to counter the Trump administration’s move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Wallah, swear to God, just wait and see! Six years later, the wait goes on.

How to explain such (…)

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