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A Pro-Israel Summit in Erbil Breaks New Ground
(Foreign Policy) Dennis Ross - On Sep. 24, a remarkable event took place in Iraq. In the northern city of Erbil, 312 Iraqis - predominantly Sunnis but also Shiites - gathered to demand that their country enter into relations with Israel and its people via the Abraham Accords, and they did this while risking the wrath of Iran and its military proxies. The participants were religious leaders, youth protesters, and college professors. The calls for arresting the participants are a chilling reminder of the limits of expression in Iraq - a sign of the leverage Iran continues to exert, but also an indication that Iran fears the message of the Erbil conference. Nothing could be more threatening to everything that Iran seeks in Iraq and the region than the expansion of peace, especially if it is coming from the ground-up. In the Middle East, Americans cannot impose their values, remake societies, or produce peace from the outside. But the U.S. does have a responsibility to support practically and materially those who will fight for themselves and embody the very values Americans believe in. The U.S. has a stake in the survival and success of the Erbil conference-goers. The writer, who served in senior national security positions for four presidents, is counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.