Sayyed Fadlullah: We have to voice our opposition to the Arab leaders and tell them to step aside, and stop convening such summits, for they have foregone all their commitments.

Asked in his weekly seminar the following question:How do you view the state of the nation in the aftermath of the Tunis Summit?

The Religious Authority Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah said:

It might not be useful to judge the Arab Summits by the communiqués they issue. These communiqués are not worth the ink they are written with. Nevertheless, these communiqués are shy and timid when it comes to the American-Israeli escalating attack. They cannot come up with any serious warring to the Israeli killing machine in Palestine and the American one in Iraq. Thus the Tunis Summit drew up a communiqué much like the previous ones, with the only difference that it has led to the loss of more of the Arab pride.

The Arab leaders came to the summit feeling that they have to adhere to the American demand of reform, and to the threat that anyone who dares to take a stand towards the vital issues in Iraq and Palestine, would be asking for destabilizing his regime, and for a bloody scene that currently overwhelms Gaza and many other cities in Iraq. So those leaders or their representatives decided not to face Bush or Sharon, even in their stands.

Their words, as evident in their final communiqué, were more like begging than threatening to take any decisive steps, especially that the nations of the world no longer take into account what they say

After they have done away with all their civilized traditions and even their faith, all their reservations are now restricted in that the reform should not run contrary to these abandoned traditions. They have turned the reform into a bargaining card, through which they would say to the Americans: Do whatever you want in Iraq and Palestine but keep us on our thrones. Then, they would wait and see how things look like after the American elections.

A crime has been committed in this Summit when they practically agreed that Bush could continue his war against the Iraqis and the entire nation through them. They did this by calling the UN Security Council to take the necessary steps to end occupation, the same council that has turned into a American national security council... In fact, the summit was announcing that it is absolutely helpless and was actually inviting other ambitious international powers to share the Americans and the Israelis their hegemony over the region.

It was very difficult for them to say that the Martyr operations in Palestine are the weapon of those who have no other choice and that they are but a reaction to the action of occupation. That is why they decided to equate between the criminal and the victim and suggest to the Palestinians that they would be deprived of another weapon, after they have denied them any aid so as not to be accused of supporting terrorism.

Thus, we expect that the American crimes in Iraq, and the Israeli crimes in Palestine, will escalate in the following stage. A new phase of trying to wear the Palestinians out, having failed to subdue them, will begin, for the Summit has proved that it is possible for the Arab leaders to feel free not only of their previous commitments, but also of the daily Israeli massacres that enable Sharon to destroy Gaza or parts of it before making the alterations he wants to make on what he called the separation plan.

A cause, as big as the Palestinian issue, can no longer be dealt with verbal condemnations or knocking on the doors of the UN that the Americans have firmly closed. The Arabs could have exerted some pressures by using the economic and political cards they still have, but they decided to do nothing and not even organize a political or media movement by the Arab communities living in the West.

The Arab leaders are not seriously interested in supporting the Palestinian and Arab rights. Some of them decided not to attend the Summit in the first place. Others came and demonstrated their intolerance showing that they do not have any respect for the opinions of others. A third party chose to be the last to come and the first to go… They are acting as children towards all these challenges for their present and future...

The problem is not in the Arab League but in its members who are not up to the challenge… We have to voice our opposition to those leaders and tell them to step aside, and stop convening such summits, for they have foregone all their commitments until we no longer have any concessions left to offer.