Two months after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, its leader, Yasser Arafat, tried to personally smuggle four arch-terrorists into Israel, revealed former Director of the Shin Bet, MK Avi Dichter (Likud).
During an interview last month in Tel-Aviv at a conference organized by the Zionist organizations Im Tirtzu and Canadians for Israel's Legal Rights, Dichter recalled receiving a troubled call from a Shin Bet officer who noted that Arafat "looked taller" upon his return to Israel from Egypt.
"There was a convoy of Mercedes," recalled Dichter, "and my guy says, 'I have no doubt that Arafat is smuggling someone in his car.'"
Despite not being able to check the cars due to stipulations in the Olso Accords, after "15-20 minutes later and we already had all the intel," said Dichter.
"Four arch-terrorists were smuggled in the convoy of the PA President Arafat. Three terrorists were in the trunks of each Mercedes, and the fourth, Jihad al-Amarin, was lying on the back seat and Arafat was sitting on top of him."
Dichter told how the information was passed on to then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who issued Arafat an ultimatum to send the terrorists back to Egypt or he would freeze all talks.
"So Arafat sent the four terrorists back to Egypt," continued Dichter, "and as they say, 'so we made a mistake,' as if it was an inconsequential thing that the President of the PA smuggled arch-terrorists in his own car."
Dichter concluded: "The Palestinian Authority is 100% to blame for the failure of the Oslo Accords, without a shadow of a doubt."