Gossip on the banks of the Tigris!

One can't help but smile wryly as one listens to the speeches of the leaders participating in the 34th Arab Summit, which concluded in Baghdad yesterday. A final statement was prepared by those who carefully reproduced or regurgitated the contents of previous statements, spiced up with an additional dose of forbidden emotional charges. The statement emphasized the centrality of the Palestinian cause, the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid, and the need to end the war that has been raging in the Gaza Strip for nineteen months.

In the tradition of meetings of institutions and companies, both small and large, the item on the agenda of the next session regarding the decisions achieved in previous sessions is at the top of the agenda. This stems from a desire to bridge gaps and fill cracks in the surfaces, to prevent the nation from slipping into the cracked wall of the burden of burdens and disappointment, and to work hard to compensate for the shortcomings, make up for the missed opportunities, and build on the achievements made.

In the visible evidence, nothing has been achieved in terms of decisions. What is lost is lost. What is confirmed is confirmed, and what is added to it is added, without scrutiny or review, amidst a complete obfuscation to purify the uneasy souls from the sin of inability that has afflicted the best nation brought forth for mankind.

The summit, which was marked by the significant absence of the nation's leaders, was an opportunity to flex the muscles of eloquent words, and express praise for the warm welcome and generous hospitality of the host country.

Perhaps the strangest thing heard from representatives of the absent leaders is that their absence was due to urgent, compelling reasons, as if there were circumstances more compelling than those the nation is enduring, requiring them to prevail over any urgent concern?!

Gaza was present with the power of honeyed, repetitive words, but this presence does not feed the hungry, extinguish the fire, quench the thirst, relieve the distressed, or heal the wound. The lesson is not in the words, but in what was done and happened.
On its eightieth birthday, the vicissitudes of time appear to have left deep scars on the body of a nation whose university institution suffers from division and weakness, and has lost much weight in the midst of a global landscape in which there is no longer room for laws, regulations, and human values.
The summit ended, and the nation remained as it was on the eve of its convening: fragmented in its positions, incapable of performing its duties, and humiliated by the people.