Yes, he may have sponsored the downing of Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in southern Scotland and could adopt the epithet of arch-terrorist, but full credit is surely due to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi for seeing through the ridiculous displays of the Arab League.
The so-called umbrella organization of the Arab world has done nothing, but nothing, to help the Palestinian people since the Oslo accords were signed nine years ago, nor has it lifted more than a knuckle to come to the aid of Iraq these past 11 years.
So kudos to President Qaddafi. At the end of last week he delivered a letter to League headquarters in Cairo announcing Libya’s intention to quit the organization because of its failure to act on the Palestinian and Iraqi issues.
Since the highly successful boycott of Israeli-produced goods and the ban on dealing with companies that dealt with Israel back in the 1980s, the League has proved to be either highly impotent, highly disorganized, or more likely, highly unmotivated.
Over the years dozens of independent regional analysts have pointed out that a depressed, subjugated, angry, confused Palestinian people suits the Arab World just fine. Meanwhile, the Arab capitals can only pay lip service to Saddam Hussein because any more would be not only a slap in the face for the US and the West, but could also result in economic sanctions against the Arabs.
The League is dominated by Egypt, currently the strong force in the Middle East. The other leading nation is Saudi Arabia. Both are dependent on the US: Egypt for billions of dollars of direct aid each year, and the Saudis for the incredible economic opportunities afforded them by the giant US and other Western markets.
There are, of course, exceptions. Individual Arab governments have tried and continue to support and encourage the spread of terrorism among the Palestinians. Saddam, for example, has been giving the families of suicide bombers $10,000 – the money fed through banks operating in Jordan and Ramallah.
There are also Saudi fingerprints in the money trail, but any suggestion of Saudi involvement is always denied at the top levels.
But these are the exceptions. Take the example of the international donors. That is the organization that brings together several Arab states, the US, other leading Western nations and, yes, Israel. The donors have pledged millions of dollars of aid to the Palestinians since 1993. Those that have come up with the goods are the US, the Scandinavian countries, Japan and, yes, Israel. Time and again the Arab states have promised to commit millions, but the money never seems to arrive in Gaza or Ramallah.
So, it is not surprising that an extremist like Saddam has been prepared to put his money where others would not and now, that Muammar Qaddafi is ready to quit the Arab League because of its lack of loyalty to its own.