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Are Palestinians ready to take the job of building a state seriously after 16 years of on-and-off negotiations with Israel?

Their prime minister, Salam Fayyad, says they are, and he has the rejectionists in the Israeli and Palestinian camps worried.

He says he's not talking about unilaterally declaring statehood, but rather of setting up the apparatus so Palestinians will be ready to govern if and when they come to a peace agreement with Israel.

Fayyad wants his people to take more seriously the job of state-building to show the Israelis and the rest of the world they are ready for self-government, but some Palestinians insist his plan will only perpetuate the occupation by letting the Israelis shift more responsibility -- but not sovereignty -- to the Palestinians.

And while many Israelis have embraced Fayyad, it is far from clear whether the Netanyahu government is prepared to give him the latitude he needs to gain the support of the Palestinian people.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have rejected the plan, insisting "resistance" is the only path to statehood. Hamas says Fayyad and his government are "not legitimate because he believes in coordination and negotiations" with Israel, according to Ma'an, the Palestinian news agency, while the "one path" to statehood is "resistance."

Ziad J. Asali, president of the American Task Force for Palestine, endorses Fayyad's approach. "If you build it, the state will come," he wrote on his group's Web page. "Independence then becomes strictly a diplomatic formality that recognizes the practical reality."

Some on the Israeli side question whether the Palestinians even want statehood and all the responsibilities that go with it, or really prefer retaining the status quo and the ability to blame all their problems on the "Zionist occupation."

The greatest obstacle facing Fayyad is not in Israel, but deep divisions within Palestinian society itself. The Islamists like Hamas are not the only ones who think armed struggle is preferable; Fatah, which controls the West Bank, is itself divided between its peace camp and advocates of armed struggle. Abbas is a weak leader who can't control Fatah, and Fayyad is an independent with no power base of his own. He is an American-educated economist who has won the respect of the Israelis and international community, and probably has more support outside of Palestine than inside.

"Fayyad saw the Zionist movement had their institutions before they had a state, and he is trying to get the Palestinian people excited for a national movement," said David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Fayyad's great challenge is to create the new paradigm: build a state on institutions, not revolution."

Aaron David Miller of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars said, "Fayyad is too smart to take a page out of Arafat's book of unilateral statehood. Should the Palestinians ever do that it would be a sign not of strength but of galactic weakness. They barely control the West Bank and not at all Gaza and have no access to Jerusalem."

Fayyad's 65-page plan is short on details but spells out national goals and priorities for "building strong state institutions" in order to "end the occupation and reach a just and lasting political settlement."

Perhaps the most radical element of his plan is what it doesn't say about refugees. Instead of the long-standing, non-negotiable demand for full right of return to pre-1967 Israel for millions of Palestinians claiming refugee status, he calls for "a just and agreed solution."

The most direct path to achieving Fayyad's goals is, as he admits, direct negotiations with Israel, but that is just what Abbas appears to be resisting by hardening terms for returning to the negotiating table.

Palestinians aren't the only ones who may not be serious.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had rejected President Barack Obama's initial call for a total freeze on settlement construction, offering a limited hiatus, and reluctantly endorsed the two-state approach. He has said talks should focus on economic development, not final status issues.

Abbas rebuffed Obama's efforts to re-launch negotiations when the three leaders met at the United Nations last week. He not only insisted on a 100-percent halt to construction, including in eastern Jerusalem, but upped the ante when his spokesman added the demand for an Israeli commitment to full return to 1967 borders, something he knew would prevent negotiations, not launch them.

In addition, Abbas wants any talks to resume where they left off under the previous Israeli government, conveniently overlooking the fact that government lost power in part because of its negotiating approach and because of the Palestinian rejection of its proposals.

Abbas apparently still has much to learn about democracy.

Fayyad is promising what most Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans want to see, and what the rejectionists fear -- Palestinians building a state ready to live side by side in peace with Israel. The challenge is monumental, starting with rallying the support of his own people and the Arab world to do more than just talk about it.

Douglas Bloomfield is the former chief lobbyist for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.