‘My Preoccupation Now is This Plan’

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has taken to heart the example of the early Zionists, who built institutions before Israel was declared a state in 1948. He is attempting to do something similar for the Palestinians, to create institutions that will enable them to declare a state in two years. NEWSWEEK's Lally -Weymouth sat down last week with Fayyad at his headquarters in Ramallah. Excerpts:

WEYMOUTH: So you have a plan to create institutions and a state within two years?
FAYYAD: We've committed ourselves to a path of completing the task of institution building. [This means] the capacity to govern ourselves effectively in all spheres of government within two years. We can do this and should do it.

So does that mean a central bank, roads?
It means all of that. We now have a monetary authority that is almost like a central bank. It has won the confidence not only of the Palestinian people but certainly of our donors, including especially the United States, which not long ago transferred $200 million directly to our treasury, after their auditors came in and looked at what we had in place.

People have compared you to the early Zionists.
I keep telling people, "Israel was not created in 1948. Israel was proclaimed as a state in 1948. The institutions of the state were there before 1948."

When I speak to Israelis or Americans about you, they say, "He's a brilliant technocrat. But he's not a politician." Do you have political ambitions?
You know, I ran for office in the last parliamentary elections and was elected a member of the legislature, which is unfortunately not working right now. But I can tell you that my preoccupation now is this plan—that's all I'm campaigning for. That is what I want to see happen.

How closely do you work with the Israeli government?
There are different layers of dealing with the Israelis. On day-to-day matters, there is no question that there is an ongoing relationship with the Israelis. Israel controls the boundaries, the points of access. You came to see me here in Ramallah—no doubt you must have passed through a checkpoint manned by Israelis. [But] if you are talking about Israelis doing things to help us implement this plan, I think the record on this is mixed. To be able to do what we are doing, we need to be enabled to do it.

The Israelis withdrew from Gaza, tore up all their settlements there, and got years of missile strikes from Gaza. So how do you guarantee Israelis that if they withdraw from the West Bank, you can control security?
Security is as much a Palestinian need as it is an Israeli need. There are problems in Gaza and no problems here, because we are here and not there.

The Israelis are upset about the Goldstone report. They say that the Palestinian Authority told them behind closed doors that they thought that it wasn't such a bad idea if they knocked out Hamas. And now they feel the PA is acting in a hypocritical manner [by pushing for the report to go to the Security Council].
There were reports to that effect in the Israeli media. It is not true that the Palestinian Authority behind closed doors said it's OK [to bomb Hamas]. Since when has Israel gone to war on behalf of the Palestinian people?

Do you believe the report will damage the peace process? Do you see the Israelis saying, "You're calling us war criminals and now we're going to all sit down together?"
I have not talked to my Israeli counterparts about this. If anything, this should be a reminder to everyone for the peace process to actually be pushed, for it to be productive, for it to be capable of producing that which we all need—lasting, just peace for everybody.

Surely Yasir Arafat could have accepted then–prime minister Ehud Barak's peace offer in 2000? It seems like the Palestinians are always turning down deals.
Yes, that's what it looks like…One of the problems with us Palestinians is that the way things work out, we end up kind of in a corner and it looks like it's our fault it didn't happen. When [U.S. envoy] Senator [George] Mitchell set out to [demand a freeze on Israeli settlements], he was not doing it because it was a Palestinian demand. It was a position taken by the administration.

Do you think President Obama is better than President Bush?
I'm impressed by the high priority that Obama gave the peace process early on.