The head of Israel's Shin Bet domestic security service, Yuval Diskin, says the Palestinian Authority is crumbling and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, does not have the ability to control terrorist groups. Speaking to the Knesset (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Diskin warned that al-Qaeda is poised to infiltrate the Gaza Strip. He was especially concerned about the smuggling of weapons and terrorists on the Gaza border with Egypt, which Israel abandoned earlier this month. In the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, "there is a strong infrastructure of world terror linked to al-Qaeda--stronger than the Egyptians themselves were aware of," Diskin said. He added that weapons smuggled into Gaza could find their way to terror groups in Judea and Samaria, where the next round of conflict is expected.