Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser Jerusalem, 17 December 1996 GSS Head meets with Knesset Sub-committee GSS head Ami Ayalon met last night (Monday), 16.12.96, with the members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee sub-committee on the covert services. Following consultations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ayalon issued the following statement: "Regarding the media debate surrounding the GSS position on the opening of the Hasmonean (Western Wall) tunnel, I wish to clarify the following items: In a number of meetings, on various occasions, I raised the tunnel issue with the Prime Minister and encouraged him to open the tunnel. I emphasized that the timing does not constitute a major problem. At the time, I was conscious of the Wakf activities in Solomon's Stables, and the site's transformation into a mosque, as well as the danger of a response by radical Jewish elements to this action. Accordingly, I assumed that, in this situation, it would be possible to open the tunnel. In discussions on 16.09.96, when the Prime Minister discussed the opening of the tunnel and addressed the matter of our response to Wakf activities at Solomon's Stables, I recommended that the tunnel be opened -- and that the political negotiations on Hebron be accelerated, while conceding to the Wakf on Solomon's Stables. The Prime Minister said that the plan was to open the tunnel at the same time as the Defense Minister's meeting with Arafat -- in which the two were to begin discussing the Hebron issue and the determination of a date for the convening of the steering committee. I was not involved in the discussions during which the precise timing of the opening was decided. I was updated on the date for the opening a day or two before the actual opening." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again expressed his full confidence in the GSS and its head, who are performing an important service to the security of Israel.