Bethlehem – Ma’an – Caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad did not reject a comparison between his efforts to build Palestinian institutions with what he said were similar efforts by early Zionist immigrants to Palestine in an interview published online on Saturday.

Lally Weymouth, a journalist for the US magazine Newsweek told Fayyad, “People have compared you to the early Zionists.”

Fayyad is quoted as responding “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.’”

Fayyad told Newsweek that he is focused on implementing his plan build up all the institutions needed for self-government within two years. He denied that he had political ambitions beyond this, saying, “My preoccupation now is this plan—that's all I'm campaigning for. That is what I want to see happen.”

He also touted the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) record in stopping attacks on Israel. “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,” he was quoted as saying.

The Western-backed prime minister also denied reports that the PA gave Israel a green light to wage war on Gaza last winter.

He told the magazine, “It is not true that the Palestinian Authority behind closed doors said it's OK [to bomb Gaza]. Since when has Israel gone to war on behalf of the Palestinian people?”