Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said "a thousand no's" Tuesday to the Mideast peace plan announced by President Donald Trump hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the president made history on the scale of Harry Truman's bold move to recognize Israel in 1948.
"You recognized that Israel must have sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and other strategic areas rather than hope for the best through lip service, so that it could defend itself by itself," Netanyahu said during the rollout ceremony at the White House on Tuesday.
Netanyahu said that the president's signing off on the new peace vision, which includes major improvements for Israel's security and territorial sovereignty by preserving the Jordan Valley and other key areas in Judea and Samaria, was unprecedented. Netanyahu said Trump's decision was on par with Harry Truman's recognition of Israel in 1948 just hours after it had declared independence, becoming the first world leader to do so. "This is a historic day, like May 15, 1948," Netanyahu said at the ceremony.
Netanyahu said his cabinet will vote next week to apply Israeli law to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian leadership spared no time in rejecting the plan, as virtually everyone anticipated.
"After the nonsense that we heard today we say a thousand no's to the Deal of The Century," Abbas said at a press conference in Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered.
"We will not kneel and we will not surrender," Abbas said, adding that the Palestinians would resist the plan through "peaceful, popular means."
The plan would create a Palestinian state in parts of Judea and Samaria and allow Israel to annex nearly all of the Jewish communities. The plan would allow the Palestinians to establish a capital on parts of east Jerusalem.
The Islamic terrorist group Hamas ruling Gaza rejected the "conspiracies" announced by the US and Israel and said "all options are open" in responding to the Trump administration's plan.
"We are certain that our Palestinian people will not let these conspiracies pass. So, all options are open. The (Israeli) occupation and the US administration will bear the responsibility for what they did," senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said as he participated in one of several protests that broke out across the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Protesters burned tires and pictures of President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
