The latest Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics labor report just came out, and it includes some interesting numbers.
Between Q1 and Q2, the number of West Bank Arabs employed by Israelis (in Israel and the settlements) went up from 93,000 to 96,000.
The average daily wage for WB Arabs working for Israelis increased from 167.6 NIS to 172.1 NIS, which would be an annualized rate of over 10%. The average daily wage in the WB for these workers is 88.6 shekels, almost half less than what the Israelis pay.
When you account for the fact that Arabs work fewer days for Israelis than for other Arabs, it means that the amount of wages for Arabs in the West Bank every month is almost 1.5 billion shekels - and Israeli employers are paying over 28% of those wages.
Now, imagine two states with an international border between them, and no settlements to employ Arabs. Imagine the PA with a loss of 28% of revenue. Imagine the number of unemployed increasing from roughly 140,000 to 235,000, with the PA responsible to keep basic welfare services operating for them. (I'm not even including the influx of "refugees" that would want to move to a future PalArab state.)
Apparently, no one is thinking about how any Palestinian Arab state could stay above water without increased billions from the West propping it up. And the hundreds of thousands of unemployed, disgruntled Arabs that would result. And the self-immolations and violent protests against the government that would follow. And the Islamist groups that would try to take advantage of the resulting chaos. And what follows that.
Welcome to a successful peace process.
