The issue: It may have given the rebels the morale boost they need to keep fighting until Assad is forced into negotiations

Since its founding in 1945, the 22-member Arab League — 21 now that Syria has been suspended — has been noted largely for its high-minded proclamations and support for noncontroversial programs, like child welfare, literacy and cultural exchanges, but not for action.

THAT PASSIVITY may have changed this year, raising the prospect that the League could become a real force in Middle Eastern and North African affairs.

A week ago, the league put forward a peace plan for Syria’s 10-month uprising. It calls for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to step down and turn over power to his vice president while a new national unity government is organized, new elections are held and a new constitution drafted. And the league says it will ask the United Nations to endorse the plan.

The league also voted to double the size of its observer missions to 300 and to extend its mandate another month, even though its monitors have been able to do little other than confirm the high level of violence. The U.N. says more than 5,400 have died in the fighting.

The Arab League surprised many, and perhaps even itself, when it took an active role in the Libyan uprising, urging a no-fly zone and asking the U.N. to impose one.

WHILE NEIGHBORING Turkey has called for Assad to step down, there has been relatively little outside interference in the Syrian civil war — with two notable exceptions.

Iran has been said to be covertly supplying the government with weapons, a gesture complicated by the fact that Iran is facing an embargo.

Russia is credibly believed to have sent one shipload of arms to Syria and it recently made a big bet on the survival of the Assad regime. It signed an agreement to sell 36 combat jets for $550 million to the Syrian government, a deal that likely would collapse if Assad goes.

Both Russia and China have vowed to veto any U.N. sanctions or support for the use of force against Syria. There have been few calls for the use of outside force. Qatar did propose using Arab troops to depose Assad, and at least one rebel faction has called for Western intervention. So far, there have been no takers.

MEANWHILE, the civil war grinds on, with the rebels showing some limited progress. They briefly penetrated the suburbs of Damascus and they have consolidated their hold on a city a half-hour drive from the capital.

The Arab League may have given the rebels the morale boost they need to keep fighting until Assad is forced into negotiations.

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