AS Arab leaders head to the Libyan city of Sirte next week to attend the aspirations of their people for radical solutions to Arab problems, say experts. The conference this year is held at a moment of high tension both inside the Arab countries themselves and outside them. While deliberations on the agenda of the summit are being made, Israelpresses ahead with its settlement construction policy in the West Bank. Sudan, Iraq, and Somalia have their own problems too. Despite this, few Arab commentators expect very little from the upcoming gathering. They say Arab leaders have reached such a point of complete paralysis that they have no cards left in their hands to use to solve their own problems or those of their fellow Arabs. “Most Arab regimes are outdated and have already lost their own legitimacy,” said Ali al-Kalidar, an Iraqi writer and political analyst based in Cairo. “These regimes struggle for survival. They're not expected to solve any problems whatsoever,” he told The Egyptian Gazette Online in an interview. What really sticks in the throats of most ordinary Arabs is that contrary to all official pronouncements about peace, Israel continues to pursue its settlement construction and annexes more Arab lands and sites every day. A recent Israeli housing plan in East Jerusalem has got thousands of Palestinians protesting and throwing stones over the past few days. Although the Israeli government has been subject to minor US criticism over the new settlement construction plan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is defiant on the housing plan. "The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 year ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today,” he said. “Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital," he added, addressing a host of US Jews in Washington this week. Sherif Hafez, an Egyptian expert on Israel, has seen the Israel Premier speaking confidently about his ability to go ahead with his plans amid what he calls this “total Arab weakness”. For him, the next week's Arab summit will be a “complete comedy” where Arab leaders will play the laughing stock to disinterested and disbelieving Arab audiences. “Before they can talk about making peace with Israel, these Arab leaders should discuss ways of making peace among themselves,” he said. “Inter-Arab disputes are so enormous that their enormity belies all statements about the need to do something to save Palestine,” he told this newspaper. These inter-Arab disputes were quite clear in the last year's Arab summit in Qatar when Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi locked horns verbally with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Al-Kalidar and like-minded observers say Arab governments need to put the necessary pressure on Israel to stop building settlements and recognise the Palestinians' right to establish their own state on the pr -1967 borders. “Arab peoples must also move to exert the necessary pressure on their governments,” he said. “These peoples shouldn't stand idly by and watch only,” he added. The Mediterranean town of Sirte in central Libya was decked with banners that proclaim: "The time is not for disputes", "We mustwork together", and "The interest of the (Arab) nation rises above all differences." Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose country like Libya is emerging from international isolation, called on Wednesday for the Arab world to close ranks and "rescue Jerusalem from Israeli schemes". Egyptian and Syrian foreign ministers had different opinions on Wednesday over the Egyptian role in the Palestinian reconciliation. Lebanon, which blames Libya for the disappearance in 1978 of leading Shi'ite cleric Moussa Sadr, has reconsidered attendance after it had previously decided to attend with a low-profile delegation.
