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B eyond the shadows of 19 United Nations-managed refugee camps in Palestinian-controlled areas of the largely Muslim West Bank lies a paral- lel Palestinian society with flashes of rela- tive luxury. A new study by Israeli-based research- ers finds "a surprising degree of luxury" alongside a poverty rate of 18 percent. It's a revealing study given all the politicking that has waylaid Palestinian advances and the lack of meaningful Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The study offers a richer picture of the riddle that is the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (P.A.). "After receiving billions of dollars in Western aid over many decades, major improve- ments are visible in the standard of living in the West Bank, as seen in newly constructed buildings, late-model cars and luxury items," states Luxury Alongside Poverty in the Palestinian Authority, an internet publication of the right- leaning Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA). In a provocative passage, the report contends, "While the Arab world is in the throes of a major meltdown with wide- spread violence and destruction in Syria and Iraq, together with serious instability in Lebanon and Egypt, daily life for Arabs in the West Bank offers a stark contrast to those scenes of violence and decline." PRESSING ONWARD Illustrating the better-than-portrayed way of life emerging in nooks of the West Bank, the JCPA cites extensive foreign aid (about $2 billion each year), a high literacy rate and rising life expectancy. The West Bank's 2.5 million Arabs also enjoy an improved water supply, thanks to an Israel-P.A. water pact. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stirred international ten- sion for erecting a security fence and imposing security checkpoints, but 92,000 West Bank Arabs work in Israel, drawn by employers offering better pay and benefits. (The P.A. poverty rate still approaches 20 percent). Government repression of Arabs in the Gaza Strip, ruled by the terrorist orga- nization Hamas, tempers hints of West Bank "luxury." At one time, Fatah, which harbors its own terrorist wing (Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades), and Hamas flirted with a unity government. Fatah and Hamas still seek a Palestinian state uniting the P.A. and Gaza with Arab-dominated east Jerusalem as the capital. DIVISIVE WEDGES Further factors limiting economic growth in the West Bank and keeping the benefit of such growth from being widely shared among West Bank Arabs include P.A. corruption, diversion of some assistance funds to terrorist activities, lack of sub- stantial international investment and, at times, Israeli restrictions (often security prompted). Daunting as such hurdles are, they shouldn't diminish the P.A. pursuit of economic incentives, says Yael Aronoff, the Michael and Elaine Serling and Friends Chair of Israel Studies and director of Jewish Studies at Michigan State University. The associate profes- sor of international relations told the JN: "Economic development in the West Bank can, I think, foster interests in peace and against the use of violence." While former P.A. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad made significant inroads in West Bank state and institutional building as well as economic development, Aronoff notes, current P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas has focused on international diplo- matic efforts, presumably to win statehood via the U.N. instead of direct, bilateral negotiations with the Jewish state. EXHIBIT A Ramallah, which I visited during a 2015 Israel mission organized by the Association of Reform Zionists of America, is the most cosmopolitan and prosperous West Bank city under P.A. con- trol. It's the de facto capital and home of Birzeit University. The Square of Lions, the Palestine Trade Tower and Yasser Arafat's Tomb, a haunting tourist site of sorts, are located there. JCPA observes, "It is difficult to get a table in a good restaurant. There are new apartment buildings, banks, bro- kerage firms, luxury car dealerships and health clubs." In sharp relief, a Ramallah street mural I noticed urged Israel to free Marwan Hasib Ibrahim Barghouti, the popular Palestinian political leader whom Israel convicted in 2004 and sentenced to five life sentences for murder in connection with terrorist attacks. Israel continues to raid West Bank com- pounds that make and deal in illegal arms. Other West Bank cities with emerging "luxury" include population hubs like Nablus and Hebron, the biblical city of Bethlehem and the new city of Rawabi, according to JCPA. CHANGING COURSE While some West Bank Arabs may live "luxuriously," the Palestinian people remain hijacked by Fatah and Hamas operatives more inclined to demonize and delegitimize Israel than to serve their own people. Imagine if Palestinian leadership cared more about spreading the wealth than discrediting Israel. The 2015 United Nations Human Development Index, a composite statistic of life expectancy, education and income per capita indicators, ranks the U.N.- recognized "state of Palestine" 113th, on par with neighboring Egypt — within the "medium human development" range. Israel ranks 18th, in the "very high human development" range. Redirected energies toward peace by at least Fatah in the West Bank might lessen that gap. Professor Aronoff chides both Netanyahu and Abbas, dogged by mistrust among constituents toward the other side, for being "unwilling to take the political risk that pushes the process forward." I offer as examples Abbas' rejection of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's overly gen- erous offer in 2008 and Netanyahu's tunnel vision on settlement expansion. Aronoff points as well to the Palestinian wild card, Hamas, not only its "continued official opposition to a two-state solution," but also its "continued use of terror as a tactic to disrupt the achievement of that goal." Equally corrosive is the P.A. practice of payouts to Palestinian terrorists and their families. Corners of luxury in the West Bank shouldn't cloud the politics at the core of the stagnated Israeli-Palestinian peace process. * viewpoints » S e n d l e t t e r s t o : l e t t e r s @ t h e j e w i s h n e w s . c o m 6 September 22 • 2016 essay Pockets Of Palestinian Wealth Mask Peace Hurdles D E T R O I T J E W I S H N E W S theJEWISHNEWS.com To make a donation to the DE TROIT JEWISH NEWS FOUNDATION go to the website www.djnfounadtion.org Arthur M. Horwitz Publisher / Executive Editor ahorwitz@renmedia.us F. 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