Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas angrily rejected US President Donald Trump's peace plan for the Middle East in a speech to the UN Security Council on Tuesday as a gift to Israel and unacceptable to the Palestinians.
Waving a copy of a map envisioned by the US plan for a solution based on the existence of the states of Israel and Palestine, Abbas said the state that had been dedicated to the Palestinians looked like a fragmented "Swiss cheese" piece.
His speech came before the UN Security Council at a time when a draft UN resolution is being circulated to the United Nations that would condemn an Israeli plan to annex its settlements in the West Bank.
"This country that they will give us is Swiss cheese," Abbas said. "Who would accept you that his state be like this?"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during an election conference in the Israeli town of Bat Yam, rejected this criticism and pointed to the possibility that Arab countries would welcome the Trump plan even if the Palestinians did not accept it.
"This is not a piece of Swiss cheese," Netanyahu said. This is the best plan that exists for the Middle East ... and for the State of Israel and the Palestinians as well. "He added that the plan" recognizes the reality and rights of the people of Israel, and they are two things that you (the Palestinians) refuse to constantly recognize. "