AP Photo

About once a year, I go through an intense week of meetings, workshops, seminars and conferences that invigorate my sense of optimism and confidence in the capacity of the Arab world to transform itself from a militarized and polarized showcase of turbulence, abuse of power and vulnerability, to a condition of productive, creative decency, dignity and stability. Well, I just went through another one of those weeks. It was rather exhilarating, and also an important indicator of what is happening in our region that foreign observers and officials would do well to understand better.

The events I participated in were rather routine occurrences that happen every day throughout major Arab cities: an American...