Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
The emergency Arab-Islamic summit held in Doha has failed to meet the expectations of many across the region, despite containing several important points in its final communique, said Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service and a prominent political analyst.
Speaking during an interview on Egypt’s Extra News channel Monday evening, Rashwan offered a blunt assessment of the summit’s impact, criticizing what he described as a weak and inadequate response to Israel’s increasingly aggressive posture.
“The summit did not rise to the level of the challenge posed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the messianic current within Israeli politics,” Rashwan said, referring to the religious-nationalist movement gaining influence within Israel’s leadership. “We are dealing with a mad Israel,” he continued. “Despite my decades of studying political science, I have never seen anything like what is happening now. Even Hitler, who was deranged in his ideology, was more rational in his movements.”
The summit in Doha was convened following an unprecedented Israeli airstrike on the Qatari capital that targeted Hamas leaders, resulting in the deaths of five Hamas officials and a Qatari security officer. The strike has drawn widespread international condemnation and has raised urgent questions about the limits of Israeli military reach and the inability of regional actors to prevent such escalations.
According to Rashwan, the Doha summit failed to send a clear, unified message in response to the Israeli attack. Instead, the final statement was seen by many observers as falling short of articulating a strong Arab-Islamic stance, especially in light of Netanyahu’s direct threats. Just half an hour before the summit began, Netanyahu held a press conference reaffirming Israel’s willingness to strike Hamas leaders anywhere, regardless of international borders.
Rashwan, however, praised Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s speech at the summit, highlighting what he described as Egypt’s clarity and consistency in defending the Palestinian cause. “President Sisi spoke with honesty and transparency,” he said. “His remarks reflected Egypt’s unwavering support for the Palestinian people.”
One of the most notable proposals from President Sisi was the call to establish a “joint Arab-Islamic mechanism for coordination and cooperation,” which Rashwan interpreted as a strategic diplomatic move. “The president deliberately used the term ‘mechanism’ to avoid imposing a specific idea or reviving a previously rejected proposal from 2015,” he explained. “He wanted to avoid putting any party in an awkward position, while still urging practical cooperation.”
Rashwan stressed that Arab and Islamic nations should carefully study and seriously consider the creation of such a mechanism. In his view, regional powers cannot afford to remain passive or disjointed in the face of increasingly unpredictable Israeli actions, particularly those that violate the sovereignty of other nations under the pretext of targeting Hamas.
“The moment demands more than statements,” he said. “It requires decisive, coordinated action that goes beyond expressions of outrage and toward actual deterrence.”
As the dust settles from the Doha summit, many across the Arab world are left wondering whether their leaders can translate diplomatic rhetoric into meaningful strategy. For critics like Rashwan, the question remains whether the region’s institutions can truly rise to meet the scale of the crisis—or whether future summits will continue to fall short.
