AP Photo

The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall Monday passed very quietly in the Arab world, because the meaning of the wall’s fall – the transition from total state control to human freedom – also bypassed the Arab world. Not the Islamic world, or the Middle East, but the Arab world. For many reasons, the Arab world collectively is the sole exception to the global wave of liberalization and democratization that touched every other region of the planet – except ours. It is difficult to predict how and when our region will change, liberalize, and democratize. The spark that sets off a chain reaction for freedom could happen in one country, and then spread...