A senior Israeli officer told the Knesset on Monday that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had “prevented huge terrorist acts against Israel," according to Israeli press reports on Monday.
The officer, whose name and rank were not revealed, was speaking at a closed-door Knesset session earlier in the day.
He told the MKs that the president, who declared an unconditional ceasefire after a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on June 1 in which 20 israelis were killed, had arrested few Islamists, but had neverthelesss blocked terrorist acts against Israeli civilians.
Israel wants Arafat to send dozens of Islamists back to jail, from among those the PA has freed during the nine-month-old Intifada. The released Islamists are accused of engineering a wave of deadly attacks.
The officer added that Arafat “ is combining terror and diplomacy in order to achieve his political goals.” – Albawaba.com
