Why the Arab League stays silent on Gaza
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- The Arab League has been largely inert as Israel's Gaza campaign enters its third year and spills into the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Syria, and Lebanon.
- The author attributes Arab inaction to three forces: post-colonial statehood (most Arab states were configured to suit foreign interests after WWI, leaving them weaker than Iran or Turkiye), the cautionary example of "shattered polities" from Palestine to Sudan that defied foreign patrons, and the "authoritarian bargain" separating elite priorities from citizens.
- Arab states depend on the US, UK, France, and Russia for financial, military, and technological support, a dependence the author says has "diluted their sovereignty" and made confronting the US-Israel axis too costly.
- The US wields influence through the World Bank, UN, NATO, IMF, and commercial banking networks, which enable sanctions against states that challenge American or Israeli interests.
- The Arab League operates by consensus, which the author says makes substantive political action "impossible to achieve on any political issue more substantive than coordinating postal rates or airline fares."
- Since 1979, most Arab governments have viewed Iran as a major threat and avoided empowering Hezbollah, Hamas, and Yemen's Ansar Allah (Houthis).
- The author argues the war with Iran has exposed weaknesses in the American-Israeli security umbrella and could "well revise Arab governments' calculations" about achieving genuine security.
Why it matters: For ordinary Arabs, the gap between public sympathy for Palestine and official inaction reflects a neo-colonial order where the US-Israel axis sets the limits of permissible response. A 60-year veteran of the region argues Arab elites consistently choose regime survival over Palestinian solidarity, with only symbolic gestures — UN votes, keffiyehs, field hospitals — permitted by the post-colonial order.
