"I told him 'You are sick,' " a U.S. embassy cable quoted a senior
Israeli official, Amos Gilad, as saying. "And he [Dahlan] started screaming
and shouting at me. He shouted for hours."
The cable, released by WikiLeaks, reported on a briefing by Gilad to a
senior State Department official. Gilad told the department's Elizabeth
Dibble, that Dahlan was emotionally unstable and could not withstand the
strain of a political campaign.
Gilad recalled a meeting with Dahlan on Sept. 16, 2005 in which the
then-PA civil affairs minister was accompanied by his daughter-in-law. After
Dahlan ranted for hours, Gilad and Dahlan's daughter-in-law called for
a doctor, who recommended hospitalization.
"He [Dahlan] refused and said he had to speak to thousands of
Palestinians on Sept. 17," Gilad was quoted as saying. "He then collapsed on
his bed. He looked ghostly white."
The Israeli official, head of the Defense Ministry's political-security
division, warned Dahlan that he could not campaign. Gilad said Dahlan could
be hurt or killed if he appeared in public.
"I said, 'If you leave this room you will either be martyred or end up
paralyzed,' " Gilad recalled. "He broke down in my arms and said he would go
to hospital."
Gilad said the Israelis arranged for Dahlan to be admitted into a
special private room in an unidentified Tel Aviv hospital. Soon, Dahlan was
taken to
a hospital with a police escort, and doctors later said he was suffering
from a slipped disc.
Dahlan did not remain long at the hospital. Gilad said Jordan's King
Abdullah sent a helicopter to Tel Aviv, and within 30 minutes Dahlan was
taken to Amman for treatment.
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