RAMALLAH,  Feb. 26 (JMCC) - Time Magazine writer Joe Klein takes a look at the process of quiet state-building taking place in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Authority, under the initiative of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, hopes to develop the political, social and economic institutions of a de-facto Palestinian State.

Security, Fayyad assumed, was one prerequisite of economic development. Another was transparent governance. We're firing incompetents and thieves in the government. You can't be taken seriously unless you fire people, Fayyad says. As a result, we're beginning to see some economic growth. Cement consumption is up 30%. Part of the growth has been funded by aid from the U.S., Europe and the Islamic world, which helps pay the salaries of government workers and funds new infrastructure projects. In 2008, Fayyad held a conference in Bethlehem, looking to begin the next phase — private development — and got some takers, including a Palestinian developer named Bashar Masri who is building an entire new city for 50,000 just outside Ramallah. We could not have done this without Fayyad's reforms, Masri told me. I mean, you deal with the police or with bureaucrats. They don't ask for a bribe. That never happened in Palestine before...

Read the full article at Time.com