Israel did not bomb Doha by accident. It was a gesture of intentional disdain, a signal to the Muslim world and the rest that, to the Zionist state, there are no restraints on capital, no law, and no norm. It could not have been a greater affront, shown by the fact it happened simultaneously with an Arab League-OIC emergency assembly of suits at that moment. As Muslim leaders sat under grand chandeliers to denounce war, Israel was setting the bay ablaze from the sky. Impotence has scarcely been displayed so publicly.

The Doha meeting was meant to be magnificent. Fifty-seven OIC member leaders gathered in a single location, thereby creating an illusion of power in itself. In the build-up, world media speculated whether it would be such a turning point: this would be the day when the Muslim world, tired of years of massacres in Gaza, would strike with full force, now that US soil had been hit. Instead, the effect was one of buffoonery—utterances of reprobation, implications of moderation, and excuses for international law.

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Although Israel may have contrived the timing to provoke its adversaries, could it have done it better? It dropped a bomb on a Muslim capital during a Muslim summit and got away with no more than adjectives.

A Summit of Shadows: the last word in Doha amounted to no more than a reprocessed dinosaur. Concern, condemnation, and calls for peace—the terms are lost in the diplomatic platitudes we have been hearing since 1948.

Analyst Mouin Rabbani injected bitter sarcasm into the absurdity: “In a precedent, the Arab and Islamic leaders decided that they are displeased with Israeli deeds. Dissatisfied. It is what bureaucrats say, not soldiers of a besieged nation.”

Another clamour was indignation.........

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