The Middle East Newsline reports that dissidents from the ruling Fatah movement have begun to openly oppose the continued rule of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas.

The dissidents have called for the replacement of Mr. Abbas and his aides even before elections are held for the PA or Fatah.

They said Mr. Abbas, encouraged by Israel and the United States, has violated repeated pledges to hold a conference that would elect a new Fatah leadership.

“The Fatah leadership has squandered all the achievements of our faction and trampled our history with its shoes,” Palestinian Legislative Council member Hussam Khader said. “All the Fatah leaders are responsible for the destruction of Fatah.”

Mr. Khader has begun organizing dissidents to oppose Mr. Abbas as head of Fatah and the PA. The dissidents, who have called for the resignation of Fatah’s Central Committee and Revolutionary Council, have accused Mr. Abbas and his senior ministers of cooperating with Israel during the war with Hamas in January 2009.

“The Israeli occupation has never harmed them or threatened them or their interests,” Mr. Khader, in reference to Israel, said. “The occupation has given them many privileges.”

Mr. Abbas has repeatedly pledged to convene the general conference of Fatah, which would pave the way for elections in the movement.

The Bulletin asked a visiting delegation of six U.S. senators and congressmen led by U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., whether they would raise allegations of human rights abuse with Palestinian Authority leader Salaam Fayad.

They said that they would do so.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

A little more than 14 years after the State of Israel signed a formal peace treaty with Jordan and 10 years after the death of Jordan’s King Hussein, with whom Israel signed the peace treaty, senior Jordanian government officials have urged senior Israeli officials not to visit their kingdom for the next few weeks.

These Israeli officials include Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter and Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi.

This recommendation was made against the backdrop of a formal suit that the Jordanian parliament in Amman plans to file to the International Criminal Court at The Hague tomorrow against Israel. The suit alleges Israel committed war crimes in the course of its recent incursion into Gaza.

The chairman of the Jordanian Parliament Legal Committee, Mubarak Abu Yamin, has already left for The Hague and tomorrow is scheduled to meet with the prosecutor general of the International Criminal Court. He plans to give him the suit against the aforementioned list of Israelis who allegedly are “senior responsible parties for the committing of a series of war crimes in the war against the residents of Gaza.”

This marks the first time since the peace treaty was signed between the two countries 14 years ago that Jordan has filed a legal suit to an international court against Israel.

This suit was approved by the Jordanian parliament, the National Committee for Human Rights and the legal committees of the public organizations in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

An Israeli official who has been monitoring these developments told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot: “From our experience, had the suit not received the tacit support of the most senior officials in the kingdom it would never have been submitted.”

The Israeli official said that some of the people whose names appear on the list of prospective defendants – Ministers Barak and Dichter, Deputy Minister Vilnai and Prime Minister Olmert – “are responsible for the discreet strategic relations between Amman and Tel Aviv.”

Most of the ministers whose names appear on the suit were invited prior to the Gaza operation to the Davos economic conference, slated to be held in Jordan in May.

“We’re waiting for the new government to be formed in Jerusalem,” a senior Jordanian government official told Yediot Ahronot last night. “We will adjust the invitations depending on need and circumstances.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

During the course of the 20th century, and especially in the years since the 1967 Six Day War, there has been a dramatic change in the academic and popular historiography of the Middle East.

The traditional narratives have been supplanted by new and fundamentally different and revisionist ways of looking at the region and its conflicts.

A case in point: In 1977, PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein told the Dutch newspaper Trouw that “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity.”

In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism.

In actuality, during the period of time in which Judea/Palestine was under the yoke of Ottoman imperialism, the dominant national identification of the “Palestinian Arabs,” a group of scattered peasants (fellahin in Arabic), was that of members of the Arab people, and more specifically as residents of greater Syria.

Palestinian nationalism as such did not exist. There has never been an independent Palestinian state, nor has Jerusalem ever been the capital of an independent Arab polity.

These facts, while undeniably true, do not in any way form the basis for modern thought and diplomatic practice in regards to Israel and its long-running conflict with its Arab neighbors.

Though Arab governments in a spirit of Pan-Arabism founded the PLO, the acknowledged historical chronology relegates such inconvenient facts to the dustbin.

Instead, fiction assumes the realm of fact while charges of racism are leveled against anyone who denies the veracity of “Palestinian claims.”

Instead of the Palestinians being perceived as a group of immigrants from various Arab states that have only recently coalesced into a semi-unified community, they are acknowledged as a group deserving of equal rights to the historical Jewish homeland.

It is to combat these myths that Professor Steven Carol has published his new book, Middle East Rules of Thumb (iUniverse 2008). Professor Carol examines the underlying assumptions behind popular support for the “Palestinian” cause, and the policy ramifications of such ideas.

A good example of this would be his treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict as the sole source of Middle East instability. It has been contended, by both the Arabs and the international community, that the underlying problem in the region is Israeli intransigence and that a negotiated peace with the “Palestinians” would lead to a better climate for economic growth and the spread of democratic values.

However, in the spirit of Josef Joffe (see “A World Without Israel,” Foreign Policy, 2005 http://tinyurl.com/atltvk ), Dr. Carol has compiled a list, chart, six pages in length, that lists the various religious, national and ethnic conflicts in the Arab/Muslim world that predate Israeli independence in their root causes, or, having begun since the inception of the Zionist enterprise, still have no connection to the settlement of Jews in their ancestral homeland. Dr. Carol does the general public a great service in providing historical, religious and political context to what one sees every day in the newspapers.

The book is written in a light and breezy style, making it easy to read. This is quite an accomplishment, given the subject matter.

As a companion to such books as Myths and Facts or From Time Immemorial, rather than a self-contained work in and of itself, Middle East Rules of Thumb proves itself to be a both a highly entertaining read and a good source of information.

Having taught at such schools as Adelphi University and Long Island University, written previous scholarly and popular works and consulted for radio, Dr. Carol certainly knows his subject material and is familiar with writing for a popular audience. Dr. Carol supplements the main body of his work with generous and well-written appendixes that are both entertaining and informative.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Tension between Israel and Turkey has begun to manifest itself in the realm of Israeli and Turkish security relations.

The Turkish army vigorously protested the statements that were ascribed to Israeli Army Ground Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi about Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Moreover, the Israeli ambassador to Turkey, Gabby Levy, was summoned by the Turkish Foreign Ministry for a meeting, where he was informed of Turkey’s protest.

The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on Saturday that Turkish officials were furious to read about a lecture that Maj. Gen. Mizrahi gave last week. The general said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan should examine Turkey’s own past and present policies before criticizing Israel.

The Israeli general referred to the Turkish mass murder of Armenians in 1915, the Turkish conquest of northern Cyprus in 1974 and the current Turkish repression of the Kurdish minority in Turkey.

Ambassador Levy told the Turkish Foreign Ministry official “the statements that were made by the officer attest to his personal position and do not reflect the official position of the State of Israel.”

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has continued to attack the Israeli political establishment.

After his vociferous opposition to the war in Gaza, on Saturday, Mr. Erdogan spoke out against the Israeli election results and the boost that the Israeli “national camp” has received.

Mr. Erdogan called on the future Israeli government to re-examine Israeli policy toward the Palestinians and to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip, which he referred to as an “open-air prison.” He repeated his allegation claiming Israel had conducted war crimes and violated Palestinian human rights.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Yesterday and Saturday, Israeli Air Force (IAF) jets attacked smuggling tunnels that run beneath the Philadelphi Road along the Egypt-Gaza border.

Secondary explosions followed the IAF strikes, proving the presence of munitions. The strikes followed on the heels of a series of Palestinian attacks against Israeli targets on Friday and Saturday.

During Friday’s attacks, Palestinians fired a Grad rocket at the city of Gan Yavne, more than 30 miles from Gaza, and only 18 miles from Tel Aviv.

The Israel radar system identified the rocket-fire, yet the same alarm system failed to respond due to a technical malfunction.

Three Qassam rockets were also fired over the weekend out of Gaza that landed in open fields in the Eshkol and Shaar Hanegev regions that are adjacent to Gaza. On Saturday afternoon, a bomb was detonated near an Israeli army patrol that moved near the border fence in central Gaza.

On Friday, the IAF, attacked a Hamas weapons production installations in northern Gaza. A few hours earlier in the day, the IAF attacked two terrorists who were riding a motorcycle to the east of Khan Yunis. Motorcycles have become a very popular mode of transportation among terrorists, who work on the assumption that it is more difficult to attack a motorcycle. In the case in question, however, the IAF missile struck near the motorcycle, killing one of the terrorists and causing the other one serious injuries.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

The Middle East Newsline has been told by top Israeli military sources that the Hamas government in Gaza has reorganized and resumed weapons and missile production in Gaza – only two weeks after the end of the war with Israel, which ended on Jan. 18.

The sources said the first missile and rocket production lines were established in Gaza City and the neighboring U.N. refugee camp of Jebalya.

“The process is not very difficult,” a military source said. “You need a supply of steel, TNT and running electricity, and you’re in business.”

On Feb. 13, the Israel Air Force (IAF) renewed air attacks on Hamas weapons facilities. Israeli aircraft struck and damaged two suspected weapons and rocket workshops in Jebalya.

Military sources in Israel said Hamas lost about 2,000 rockets during the 22-day war with Israel.

They said the Islamic regime and its Palestinian militia allies rebuilt weapons factories immediately after the war. It resumed smuggling components from the neighboring Sinai Peninsula to manufacture Qassam short-range rockets.

Hamas has also renewed BM-21 Grad rocket-fire against Israel. On Friday, Palestinian militants fired a Grad that landed near the Israeli city of Yavne.

Meanwhile, the Hamas regime has been smuggling Grads and other missiles and rockets from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

Yesterday, at least two Qassam rockets landed in Israel’s western Negev desert.

“Egyptian action is too slow, and the government must set an appropriate policy for the Israel Defense Forces,” Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told the Cabinet on Sunday.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com