"They will do nothing except talk and lie to their people."

Arab "leaders", the "client regimes", and Arab "summits", have been ridiculous spectacles for a long time now. Last time they met like this the American armies were descending on Arabia, getting ready to destroy Iraq and put one of their own, the despicable British-created Emir, back on his oil throne in Kuwait City. Those armies, and their associated legions, have never really left; and "the Arab world" today, as the Arab summiteers gather once again, remains neo-occupied by the Anglo-Americans and frightened into cowardice and submission by the little Israelis.

BAQAA CAMP, Jordan (AP - 26 March ) - Sabiha Abu-Kum gazed at the sky and said, ``Allah can only help us, not Arab leaders.''

``They will do nothing except talk and lie to their people,'' said the 47-year-old Palestinian, who took shelter in this dusty refugee camp after fleeing her home in the West Bank town of Ramallah during the 1967 Middle East war.

``Arab summits never did anything to us, so why should this one be any different?'' Abu-Kum asked Monday, referring to the two-day meeting of Arab heads of state which as opening in Jordan on Tuesday.

The summit is expected to discuss the fate of Middle East peacemaking under hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and support for the Palestinian uprising. More than 430 people have been killed in six months of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

But differences over how to tackle an Iraqi request that the summit call for a lifting of 10-year-old sanctions have dominated three days of discussions of Arab foreign ministers, whose recommendations will be the basis of the summit's deliberations.

Abu-Kum's sentiment was shared by many refugees across the Arab world, who were pessimistic that the summit will help them return to the homes they lost in wars with Israel in the last five decades or end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In Lebanon's Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, Palestinians echoed militant remarks.

``If Arab leaders really want to help us, let them open their boundaries with Israel to Palestinian fighters and provide them with weapons,'' said Mounir Makdah, a leader of Fatah, a breakaway faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

``It is only through the uprising that our state will be established,'' he said.

In Baqaa, the largest of Jordan's 13 U.N.-run refugee settlements housing some 1.57 million Palestinians, residents were equally angry.

``Peace with Israel has proved to be a big joke and what has been taken by force will not be restored by peace, but force,'' said Osama Abdul-Rahim, 24, an unemployed college graduate.

``Arab leaders will not allow this because they are protecting Israel to appease its guardian, the United States,'' said the native of Abu-Dis, a Jerusalem suburb.

Abdul-Rahim's neighbor, Ibrahim Odeh, 50, said Tuesday's summit, just like the one held in Egypt five months ago, ``is a waste of time.''

``Those summits are just talk shops and the best thing for the leaders is just to give money to the Palestinians and let them resist the Israeli occupation on their own,'' said the construction worker, who is originally from the West Bank town of Nablus.

On the other side of the camp, 17 miles northwest of the Jordanian capital Amman, Fawaz Ismail left a crowded mosque after performing Muslim noon prayers.

``I beseeched God to make Arab leaders stop selling their people and Palestine to the Zionists,'' said the bearded 30-year-old refugee, a native of Daheriyeh, a village near Hebron.

Sultan Abu el-Abed, 77, a retired carpenter from the Israeli town of Lod, said the Arab governments are ``acting like children.''

``They are quarreling over Iraq and Kuwait while innocent Palestinians are being killed each day by the hands of the Israelis in Palestine,'' he said.

``And what about us, refugees?'' he asked with a sigh. ``We're totally forgotten. This is the crime.''

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council failed to reach agreement early on Tuesday on a resolution aimed at ending six months of Israeli-Palestinian clashes before an Arab summit opened in Amman, Jordan.

"It doesn't look promising," said Palestinian observer Nasser al-Kidwa. "We think that we are almost at the end of the road with the negotiations with the United States and the Europeans. But we'll give it another try."

The Palestinians and their supporters had been pressing for a council vote before the beginning of the Arab League summit but missed the deadline. The council adjourned until morning.

However, a small group of key diplomats, including chief U.S. envoy James Cunningham and al-Kidwa, talked throughout the night, an indication there might yet be a breakthrough.

"We're close enough that we could agree if the others were willing to come on board. And we're far enough apart that we could easily not agree," Cunningham said.

Western diplomats are urging the Palestinians to accept a compromise or risk destroying any chance of a good relationship with the new administration of President George W. Bush.

One envoy said American positions went beyond what the former Clinton administration probably would have accepted, including expressing "grave concern" at the humanitarian and economic situation in the West Bank and Gaza and commenting on the expansion of settlements.

But al-Kidwa said that the seven nations who backed him on the council would put the original Palestinian-initiated resolution to a vote if there were no agreed text.

That draft calls for an unarmed U.N. observer force to protect Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza -- an action Washington would veto.

A resolution in the 15-member council needs nine votes in favor and no veto from any one of its five permanent members. A measure calling for a U.N. observer force failed in December because it obtained only eight votes, thereby sparing Washington the use of its veto.

The Security Council is trying to merge three general positions: the Palestinian one, a European compromise and the United States stand.

The Palestinians and their seven supporters on the Security Council want members to express willingness for an observer force or at least leave the door open for one by agreeing on an unspecified "mechanism" to protect civilians.

At least 349 Palestinians, 66 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed in six months of violence between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.

And the United States, Israel's ally, has been negotiating intensely on a text that would not commit council members to any specific action without the agreement of both Israel and the Palestinians.

Western European members of the council -- Britain, France, Ireland and Norway -- have proposed a compromise draft, which is the basis for most of the negotiations.

This calls for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to explore a "mechanism" to protect civilians but leaves it up to him to negotiate with the parties.

The Europeans want the council to play a role in the crisis but do not want any resolution that would draw a U.S. veto. They would abstain on the original Palestinian text.

Israel opposes any resolution. "It will keep this issue open for further and further harassment," Israeli ambassador Yehuda Lancry said. "The best way to encourage Israelis and Palestinians is to call for a quick resumption of negotiations, a call to end violence."

While Israel has welcomed Annan's quiet mediation, it does not want the world body itself playing a role. Arab nations can muster a majority of votes for any action in the 189-member U.N. General Assembly, which might deal with the issue if the council fails to adopt a resolution.

In practice, there can be no observer force without Israel's consent as no country would, under such circumstances, offer the United Nations personnel. But Palestinians want the council to acknowledge outside help is needed.

Mid-East Realities

www.middleeast.org

Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/3/117.htm