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Fresh Fish. In part, the new pragmatism stems from desperation: Palestinians no longer believe that the Jews can be driven out of Israel. But it also reflects the indisputable fact that life under the Israelis has not been as harsh as most Palestinians had feared. Money and private cars have been in short supply since the war, and the West Bank telephone system, sabotaged by the departing Jordanians, is still a shambles. But food is plentiful, including the fresh sea fish that Palestinians love and the Jordanians were unable to supply. More important, there have been no mass repressions, no raping of Arab women, no wholesale expropriations of Arab property. Palestinian businessmen have shucked their coats and ties, adopted the more comfortable Israeli practice of coming to work in their shirtsleeves. "From the very first day," says Bethlehem's Mayor Elias Bandak, "the Israelis and our people mixed together as old friends."
That may be something of an overstatement. In Hebron, Mayor Ja'abari's calls for negotiations have brought him a flood of threatening letters, the derision of Jordan's Amman radio and an attempt to blow up his house. But neither Ja'abari nor his colleagues give much importance to the violence of their critics. "I am not afraid," Ja'abari says. "I believe the great majority of the Palestine people want a solution, so they can live in peace. We are tired of war. We want better days for our children." All that keeps many Palestinians from openly working with the Israelis toward that end, in fact, is uncertainty over just what will finally become of the West Bank. Afraid to cooperate too actively with the Israelis lest they be called collaborators if Jordan regains the land, they may need only a firm declaration of Israel's intentions to make them all as pragmatic as their leaders.