The Arab League summit of kings, emirs, and presidents-for-life, after huffing and puffing for two days, made Israel an offer it cannot accept and said America is to blame for all the turmoil in the Middle East.

Setting the tone in his inaugural speech on Wednesday, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia branded the American presence in Iraq an “illegitimate foreign occupation,” called on America and the West to end a financial embargo of the terrorist Muslim fundamentalist organization Hamas, and revived his 2002 peace plan.

The Saudi monarch, frequently described as a close friend of President Bush, preceded his declarations by canceling a state visit to America, scheduled for next month. After playing host to President Ahmadinejad of Iran earlier this month for a bilateral summit, Mr. Bush’s friend will visit Tehran next month.

As far as Israel is concerned, at this week’s summit the Arab League made the one offer Israelis cannot accept: recognition in exchange for the return of millions of Palestinian Arabs, who fled when the Jewish state was established in 1948.

The king did not explain how Israel, with a population of about 5.5 million overwhelmingly Jewish people, could absorb and live with a sudden inflow of about 4 million Arab Muslims, many bent on destroying it.

Abdullah suggested that once the Americans leave Iraq, the sectarian civil war could be resolved and unity among Arabs could be affirmed. This drew overwhelming approval from the Arab heads of state. There was no mention of the hundreds of jihadi suicide bombers and others who infiltrate Iraq daily across the borders of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria to promote and participate in sectarian wars.

As always, these Arab League summit deliberations will be forgotten in a couple of weeks. But it does leave questions about the governments of Israel and Arab states.

Why does Prime Minister Olmert seem so excited about this Arab League offer? His spokesmen, including Shimon Peres, have for weeks expressed hopes about the meeting.

For the Arabs, the question is how can a summit that resolved absolutely nothing be called a “grand show of unity”?

Still, the meeting in Saudi Arabia had its moments. It was wisely boycotted by the Libyan strongman, Muammar Gadhafi, who at an Arab League summit in Sharm el-Sheik in February 2005 called King Abdullah a “monkey” to his face and attempted to organize his assassination shortly afterward.

The irrepressible “unique leader” branded the summit a “sellout” of the Palestinian Arabs and a gathering of “Zionist stooges,” and he declared himself and Libya to be African.

In a interview with Al-Jazeera on Tuesday, Colonel Gadhafi also described Secretary of State Rice as an attractive, proud, black woman and “my friend,” “my girlfriend,” or “my lover” — depending how you translate “habibty,” the endearing Arabic word he used.

Before the Arab League sessions began, there was much quarreling over which of the leaders would speak first. Miffed, President Mubarak of Egypt, who considers himself the Arab elder, declared he would speak at the end of the meeting instead.

The Saudis also sent their signals. In a calculated insult, they did not hold an official reception for President Lahoud of Lebanon when he arrived at the airport. Mr. Lahoud is widely viewed as the facilitator of the murder of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, in February 2005.

Yet the Saudi king was right there at the foot of the plane to greet President Assad of Syria, who many consider to be Mr. Lahoud’s boss and the real organizer of the killing, along with other mayhem in Lebanon.