We have lived through decades of Arab divisions and infighting. But now Arab League nations have announced forming a joint military force and increasing security coordination, mainly to bomb a fellow Arab country. We prefer division to unity about the wrong cause. 

The historically incompetent Arab League has become a tool for the Saudi regime, which is an enemy to the aspirations of Arab citizens. The League should cease to exist.

In the past years Arab League summits have produced nothing geopolitically tangible except concessions to its enemies. But the League’s performance has gone from bad to worse. Even the comic relief that was usually provided by the late Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi has been drained out of the League’s annual meetings. 

Last week in Sharm el-Sheikh, Arab leaders hit a new low. They decided to unite behind striking the “biggest threat” to the region, Yemenis in Yemen.  Palestine was only mentioned in passing in the summit’s final communiqué.

Palestine, which has always been at the core of Arabs’ political priorities, has become an afterthought at the Arab League summit. 

What remains of Palestine is being colonized and the Arab League is watching in silence. Israeli troops in Beirut in 1982 received no more than verbal condemnation from the League. American troops in Baghdad in 2003 received a farcical demand for withdrawals from the League, even while its most powerful members lobbied for and supported the invasion.

Massive swathes of Arab land in Syria and Iraq are under the control of a transnational gang that calls itself the “Islamic State” and the Arab League does not seem to be concerned.

But when a group of Yemenis— rightly or wrongly— appear to be winning in an internal Yemeni conflict, the Arab League calls for a unified armed force. 

Saudi Arabia, the biggest, richest Arab country, is bombing its impoverished neighbor Yemen, mostly murdering civilians in the process, and the Arab League stood behind the oppressor against the victim.

The Arab League has always been criticized for its silence about attacks on Arab nations. Now it is supporting and engineering the assaults on Arab people. The League has become a burden on the Arab masses. It has failed the people for too long.