In the current issue of Moment, Glenn Frankel takes a trip through Hebron—normally thought of as the nastiest flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian tension: Several hundred Jewish families of particularly (how to put this delicately?) dedicated ideology, nestled among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including many of the most violent of their factions. Black hole, right?

Not any more. Frankel reports that Hebron has quieted down to a dramatic degree, due to a combination of unceasing, effective Israeli military operations and the tacit cooperation of the city’s Arab leadership. As a result, the city has become what one newspaper called “the safest place in the territories.” Maybe that’s pushing it. But still, Frankel writes that Hebron is thriving economically as a result of the quiet, and on his visit was “more stable than I’d seen it in decades.” Could this be a model for peace?