Avi Gabbay
Avi GabbayMiri Tzahi/TPS

Zionist Union chairman Avi Gabbay on Monday slammed the remarks made on Sunday by Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, in which he rejected the connection of the Jewish people to Israel and Jerusalem.

"Abbas's words are serious and include lies and anti-Semitic fabrications," Gabbay said, but stressed, "We must not be confused and we must not focus on what the Palestinians say. The Zionist dream is a dream of initiative, of what we did, and not about an endless preoccupation with what the world says. "

"Before and after Abbas’s speeches, separation from the Palestinians is our interest - we do not want to annex two million Palestinians to Israel and not manage the lives of four million Palestinians," he continued. “And the most disturbing part is that at a certain stage we are liable to lose control of the situation and the Palestinians will lead us to a bi-national state."

"Both us and the Palestinians need leaders who want to build trust between one another and not to deal with what the world says about them and certainly not to continue with accusations that do not lead to anything," Gabbay added.

"When [former Egyptian President] Anwar Sadat came to Israel he changed things along with Menachem Begin and since then we have a peace agreement," Gabbay said. "We also have to take initiative and change things with the Palestinians."

In his speech on Sunday before the PLO's Central Committee, Abbas lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump, attacked the State of Israel, and denied its right to exist.

Abbas said that "they wanted to bring the Jews from Europe to protect the interests of the Europeans in the region, and they asked the Netherlands, which had the largest fleet in the world, to transfer the Jews." According to Abbas, "Israel is a colonial project that has nothing to do with the Jews."

The PA chairman also called President Trump’s December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital a “slap in the face” to the PA, warning that the PA “will slap back”.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also responded to Abbas’s speech and said that the PA leader had revealed his true colors, and exposed his fundamental opposition to Jewish statehood, which he called the “root of the conflict”.

"I heard what Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] said. He has revealed the truth. He has torn off the mask and shown to the public the simple truth that I have been working to instill for many long years: The root of the conflict between us and the Palestinians is their steadfast refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any borders whatsoever," said Netanyahu.