Called for by the Arab summit in Cairo, supported by the Islamic summit in Doha, it is hardly surprising that this resolution should have met this fate, particularly in light of Clinton's obsessive efforts to resume the peace negotiations. The Palestinian administration gave America a good excuse to scuttle the resolution by failing to insist on minimal protection for the Palestinian people as a condition for resuming the negotiations. The sovereignty over East Jerusalem that Barak now offers the Palestinians is limited and superficial, and would take a single Israel signature to become null and void. A complete concession on the issue of the refugees. This denies over five million Palestinians the right to return to their homeland and to receive retribution, as well as creating a profound problem for a country like Lebanon, which categorically refuses to settle refugees within its borders.
Diplomatic endeavours seem to conceal current Arab weaknesses.
It is easy for Arab and Islamic summits to pass resolutions that call for protecting the Palestinian people or establishing a war crimes tribunal, but it is also common knowledge that such decisions are unrealistic, that the Arabs alone would not be able to implement them, and that those states that possess the means to do so will shoot them down as soon as they are conceived.