[The Independent - 27 March 2002]: Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, threw Yasser Arafat into the valley of humiliation last night, banning his visit to the Beirut Arab summit in the face of feeble American protests. "Unfortunately, the conditions are not yet ripe for Chairman Arafat's departure for Beirut" Mr Sharon said after two Palestinians set off a bomb at an Israeli checkpoint in Jerusalem.

Later, two military observers from an international force stationed at Hebron in the West Bank were shot and killed while driving down a Jewish settlers' road, apparently by Palestinian gunmen. The two victims, believed initially to be Norwegian, were the first members of this unarmed force, set up in 1997 to help ease tensions after the partition of Hebron into Israeli and Palestinian zones, to be killed. Another observer was slightly wounded in the ambush.

President George Bush, who has urged Mr Sharon to allow the Palestinian leader to travel to Beirut to endorse a watered-down version of a UN resolution demanding the return of Israeli occupied land for peace, let Mr Sharon off the hook. Mr Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said: "The President's position is simple and clear. We're dealing with a sovereign [Israeli] government. Governments have the right to make determinations [sic]''.

Mr Arafat, could, perhaps talk to Arab leaders via a video-link although he would appear a prisoner of the Israelis on any screen in Beirut. But the Arabs have already seen the trap. And if anyone can smell a rat, Hosni Mubarak can. When the Egyptian President decided last night he would not attend the summit, the word was out. Stay away. Yasser Arafat - even if the Israelis were generous enough to allow him to travel to Lebanon at the 11th hour - was told by his cronies to remain in his office in Ramallah.

Colonel Gaddafi would not come. Nor would Saddam Hussein. Not even the ruler of the United Arab Emirates deigned to come. Nor the Emir of Qatar. They call this an Arab summit?

In truth, it is a tragedy. For symbolism, one might glance at the ruins of the Holiday Inn. Punched into Irish lace by a hundred shell holes during the civil war, its gaunt facade has been covered by a 500ft advertisement hoarding depicting the far more ancient ancient Roman ruins of Baalbek. "Vivre le Liban," it says. Long live Lebanon. But the summit is dead.

The Americans wanted the Arab kings and presidents to endorse Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's Heath Robinson "peace plan", a vague and ambiguous proposal of "land for peace" which is itself a watered-down version of UN Security Council Resolution 242, the famous - or infamous - tract that demanded Israeli withdrawal from Arab territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war in return for the security of all states in the area, including Israel.

But the Saudis did not want to talk about Palestinian refugees - tens of thousands of whom languish in mud and filth scarcely four miles from the summit conference hotel in Beirut - nor about the occupied Syrian Golan Heights which President Bashar Assad of Syria, wants to hear about.

The latest version of the Saudi proposals concentrates on compensating refugees, which few of them would accept. Nor would the Lebanese, the hosts of this ghost summit, who would like the 250,000 Palestinians on their land to go home - wherever "home" might be. So what hope of peace in the rain-squalled streets of Beirut last night?

Well, Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general is coming. Javier Solana, Europe's best known and least eloquent statesman is here. Indeed, the non-Arabs seemed to be more important than the Arab rulers who have chosen to come to the city in which Mr Arafat and his Israeli nemesis, Ariel Sharon, together helped to ruin in 1982.

Mr Solana was talking last night about a "ray of hope" but the Arabs could not see it. Even if the great and most corrupt of potentates managed to come to Lebanon, they would only have been able to accept the most amorphous of Saudi "peace" plans. Indeed, by mid-morning, the best on offer - a new version of the Abdullah proposal - was an "end to conflict" with Israel. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of peace and security for either Jew or Arab.

Many Palestinians believed for Mr Arafat to accept Israel's "permission" to attend would amount to a shameful humiliation. Since Mr Sharon told Mr Arafat he must not "incite violence" in any Beirut speech, the Palestinian leader would be a prisoner of the Israelis.

By late last night, the Lebanese were suggesting the two-day summit might last only a day. There would be a ritual nodding in the direction of Crown Prince Abdullah's "peace plan" - who would ever offend a Saudi in the Arab world - and an equally ritual warning that bombing Iraq would not be a good idea. A draft communiqué for Arab leaders stated there was "serious concern" about Iraq's "unity and safety" and rejected "the use of force or any threats of using force" against Saddam Hussein. And that will surely have President Bush shaking in his boots.

SIDON, Lebanon (AP - 27 March) - In Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, the talk is of war and despair.

Palestinians stuck in refugee camps such as Ein el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon have little hope that the upcoming summit of Arab leaders will improve their lives or those of Palestinians fighting Israel occupation.

``In previous summits, they made many promises concerning the Palestinians but did not achieve anything,'' said Nasser Youssef Huleihil, 37, who is originally from Safad in what is now Israel.

Arab leaders are to discuss a Saudi plan offering an end to the Israeli-Arab conflict in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from the territories it occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.

In its simplest form, it does not specifically address the issue of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, such as the 60,000 people living in squalid conditions in Ein el-Hilweh.

But several documents said to be drafts of the resolutions call for refugees to be allowed to return to their homes or to be compensated as stipulated in a long-standing U.N. resolution.

When asked about the Saudi initiative, refugee Khalil Mustafa replied: ``All the Arabs are going to recognize Israel.''

``Regrettably I have no hope of dying in Palestine,'' said Mustafa, who left 54 years ago. ``I think I will die in Lebanon.''

The summit comes amid the bloodiest period in the Arab-Israeli conflict in 20 years. At least 1,210 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and more 350 on the Israeli side in the past 18 months.

The summit should ``adopt a firm stance and put pressure to force the enemy to withdraw from all Palestinian territories and give moral and real support to our Palestinian people,'' said Abu Adham, a Palestine Liberation Organization official secretary in southern Lebanon.

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in harsh conditions. They have suffered from Israeli attacks in the past, and their Lebanese hosts blame them for a 15-year civil war. They have no civil rights and are not allowed to work except at menial jobs.

Many refugees in Lebanon have joined armed guerrilla groups and some camps have become lawless territory where government authority does not exist.

On Monday, dozens of protesters held two demonstrations against the possibility that Palestinian refugees would be resettled elsewhere instead of being allowed to return to their homes in what is now Israel. The demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags as well as a tent symbolizing resettlement in what has become a routine scene in the camp.

Mahmoud Hamdan, 80, did not think the summit will improve his chances of returning one day to the village of Loubya in the Tiberias area of northern Israel.

``Can they (Arab leaders) take us back to Palestine?'' he said as he strolled through the crowded vegetable market in Ein el-Hilweh. ``We want to fight. The intefadeh (uprising) needs help and they should let us fight to liberate Palestine.''