Israel says Abbas 'lost his senses' after his speech accusing them of killing peace process

Israeli leaders have criticised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' speech on Monday where he denounced US president Donald Trump's peace efforts as the "slap of the century" at a key meeting.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Abbas had "lost his senses" and decided to replace peace negotiations with open confrontation with both Israel and the United States.

Naftali Bennett, the Israeli education minister, said the speech represented Abbas' 'swan song'.

"The root of the conflict between us and the Palestinians is their continuous refusal to recognise the Jewish state in any borders," posted the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Facebook, adding that Abbas "tore off the mask" and exposed the truth.

Abbas' two hour speech saw him reiterate that he would not accept the Trump administration as a mediator in peace talks with Israel and called for an internationally-led process.

Abbas attacked the US ambassadors to Israel and the United Nations, David Friedman and Nikki Haley, calling them a "disgrace".

The Palestinian leader also lashed out at other Arab leaders whom he told to "go to hell" for criticising him, announced the peace process dead and accused Israel of killing it.

"I am saying that Oslo, there is no Oslo. Israel ended Oslo," he said, referring to persistent Israeli settlement building and other issues seen as eroding the possibility of a two-state solution to the conflict.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who holds a mostly ceremonial position, said the comments brought to mind Abbas' own doctoral dissertation, in which he challenged the number of Jewish victims of the Holocaust and claimed Zionists had collaborated with Nazis.

"He returned back to the ideas he expressed decades ago, when they were no less terrible," Rivlin said on Monday. "To say Israel is the result of a Western conspiracy to settle Jews in land belonging to Arab populations? To say that the Jewish people has no connection with the land of Israel? He forgot many things, and said exactly the things that led him to be accused years ago of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial."

Hugh Lovatt, Israel and Palestine Project Coordinator at the European Council for Foreign Relations, said while the speech was full of rhetoric, there was little noticeable policy.

"Abbas's rambling speech was also noteworthy for what was not there - namely, any real vision for moving beyond the failed US-led Oslo paradigm," he told AFP

"Those hoping for a glimpse of a new Palestinian strategy to end the occupation or a shift towards a one-state solution will have been left disappointed."

Earlier this month, Palestinian leaders said they will not be "blackmailed" after Trump threatened to cut aid worth more than $300 million annually to force them to negotiate.

Trump says "we refused negotiations. May God demolish your house. When did we refuse?" asked an indignant Abbas in his speech.