March 04, 2025
By Nasser Kandil
• The Arab Summit convenes today, ostensibly to respond to the American proposal for the forced displacement of Gaza’s population. Based on available information, the Arab position rejects Trump’s plan to expel Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan. Instead, it is expected to put forth a counterproposal advocating for the reconstruction of Gaza without displacing its people. However, the Arabs understand that America’s issue is not a lack of technical solutions for rebuilding Gaza but rather its blind allegiance to Israel.
• The Arabs recognise that Washington and Tel Aviv seek to outsource the task of eliminating the resistance, which they cannot accomplish themselves, to the Arab states. Consequently, the summit appears inclined toward the vision of Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, whose record on Gaza is marred by his time as Egypt’s foreign minister, when he infamously threatened to break the legs of any Gazan who attempted to cross into Egypt. Aboul Gheit’s approach hinges on sidelining Hamas. Yet, Hamas has signaled a willingness to step aside, provided that an alternative Palestinian framework is reached through Arab consensus with the Palestinian Authority and gains acceptance from both the Americans and the Israelis. And therein lies the dilemma.
• The ultimate objective remains the dismantling of the resistance, the disarmament of its fighters, and the displacement of Gaza’s population. The debate revolves around where they will be relocated and who will take them in. The critical question is: Who will dare to enforce this displacement? Who will have the audacity to disarm the resistance? Gaza has already declared that any Arab or international force attempting to do so will be treated as an occupying power.
• The choice before the Arabs is whether to be Panama or Ukraine. Panama defied pressure and endured, while Ukraine surrendered its land, people, and army as fuel for an American war. When the consequences of that war became undeniable and defeat at Russia’s hands appeared certain, America discarded Ukraine at a bargain price, humiliated its president, and expelled him from the White House.
• The Arabs are not being asked to wage a war they will never fight, nor to impose a boycott they will never uphold, nor even to wield the oil weapon they will never bring to the negotiating table. What is required is far less yet entirely achievable: to recognise that this moment is about the Palestinian cause as a whole, not just a Gaza crisis. The Arabs must declare the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on Gaza’s land as a starting point, achieve Palestinian national reconciliation, and form a unity government beginning in Gaza. From there, they should officially open the Rafah crossing as a Palestinian-Arab gateway through Egypt, one for which all Arabs share responsibility, not just Egypt alone.
• What is needed is for them to act, because they can. But will they?
