Driving north on Route 60, just past Ramallah, you reach Turmusaya, a Palestinian town sometimes referred to as “Little America.” Palm trees line the entrance. Mansions rise behind stone walls. SUVs fill wide driveways. For a moment, it does not look like the West Bank at all.

In Israeli media and commentary, Turmusaya is sometimes described as the “Beverly Hills” of the West Bank. That image is sometimes used to suggest that Palestinians are exaggerating — or even fabricating — the dangers they claim to face.

Turmusaya is wealthy. Many of its residents are Palestinian Americans who spent decades working in the United States before returning home. But what this image obscures is a basic reality of life in the West Bank: wealth does not buy safety.

In most countries, wealth comes with buffers. Money provides access to safer neighborhoods, private security, effective legal representation, and political influence. This is how capitalism normally functions: capital can be converted into protection.

In........

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