Messiah On A Hill

Billionaire Munib al-Masri looks to capitalize on Palestinian anger.

By car they're only 15 minutes apart, but you can't get much further from the West Bank's desperate refugee camps than the summit of Mount Gerizim, on the outskirts of Nablus. The Palladian-style mansion perched there—the home of Palestinian billionaire Munib al-Masri—houses a staircase imported from Sicily, a Gothic fireplace from Versailles and a glassed-in winter garden that al-Masri says was a gift from Napoleon to Josephine. "This is a Picasso, but it looks like a Goya," the billionaire says with a casual wave. He is unapologetic about the excess. "I could live in New York, Geneva or London," he says. "I prefer Nablus."

That's a rare sentiment, billionaire or not. Israeli and American officials have noted, somewhat smugly, that disillusionment with the Hamas government in Gaza is growing. Less hyped is frustration with the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank—a third of Palestinians in a recent poll expressed disgust with both sides. "Palestinians are fed up with all these inexperienced people," says al-Masri. Hamas's boasts of an imminent military victory ring hollow, but so does optimism from Fatah diplomats about this week's Mideast summit in Annapolis, Md. Al-Masri, whose ambitions are as lofty as his Nablus mansion, thinks he's the man to seize that middle ground. More...