1. AS PALESTINIAN POLLS OPEN, HAMAS IS SHOWING STRENGTH… Palestinians began voting for a new legislature early Wednesday morning. Balloting is taking place at more than one thousand polling stations, each under heavy guard by security forces. Polls will close at 7 p.m. local time [12:00 noon, U.S. Eastern time]. The election is divided between national and regional candidates. The 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council will be made up of half of each. As the campaign concluded, Hamas appeared to have the advantage in the local races while the strength of the ruling Fatah party is in the national vote. A new poll by the Ramallah-based Near East Consulting Institute predicted Fatah would take only 59 seats against 54 for Hamas.
2. OLMERT OFFERS A GLIMPSE OF HIS VISION… In his first major policy speech since taking over the reins of government from comatose premier Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert offered the first official glimpse of his own vision for Israel’s future. Speaking at a national policy conference, Olmert invoked the Road Map peace plan as his guide, but then set down goals not entirely consistent with the internationally-backed plan. Like Ariel Sharon, Olmert sees Israel making additional territorial concessions, but also plans to “maintain control over the security zones, the Jewish settlement blocs and those places which have supreme national importance to the Jewish people, first and foremost a united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty.” The Palestinians demand that Israel abandon all land conquered in the 1967 War. As the one who would typically launch Ariel Sharon’s trial balloons, Olmert had been hinting that more unilateral action such as the Gaza pullout is in store. But in his speech Olmert was vague on the point, saying that “we would prefer an agreement.” Also like Sharon, Olmert will make setting final borders a priority if his party retains power in the March election.
3. GATE GOURMET AIRLINE CATERER TO OPEN WORLD’S MOST ADVANCED AIRLINE FOOD FACTORY IN ISRAEL… The airline catering giant Gate Gourmet has announced plans to build the world’s most advanced airline food factory at a new facility in Israel. The company operates 130 kitchens around the world, prepares 500,000 meals daily, and does $2 billion in business each year. According to Globes financial newspaper, Gate Gourmet International’s chairman told acting Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert that the company’s first investment in Israel will provide as many as 1,000 jobs. In addition to airline meals, Gate plans to enter the tender for outsourced meals for Israel’s military and seek institutional contracts. Its goal is to produce tens of thousands of meals every day. To do so, it will create an Israeli subsidiary.
4. SENTENCING OF PENTAGON ANALYST KEY TO THE AIPAC SCANDAL IS STILL SENDING SHOCKWAVES… The shockwaves emanating from Larry Franklin’s sentencing last Friday continue to reverberate. Not only are the immediate players shaken – including Franklin, the two former staffers for the American lobby for Israel, AIPAC, and the organization itself — but lobbyists, journalists and special interest groups are all feeling the anxiety the case is generating. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III shocked the courtroom when he handed down a 12-year jail sentence: a term four times greater than that which government prosecutors had asked for. More shocking, however, was Ellis’s application of a law written in the early 1900s that criminalizes the passing of classified information by civilians. It is believed to be the first application of that statute. Free speech activists argue that Ellis is suggesting that any reporter or private individual who comes into possession of classified material could be prosecuted. But for Steve Weissman and Keith Rosen, the former AIPACers whose trial begins in a matter of weeks and for AIPAC itself, the news is potentially devastating. Franklin’s sentence will be mitigated based on the degree his testimony helps the government’s case against the pair. Minimally, he will refute their claim not to have known the material in question was classified. And the results could be disastrous for AIPAC if testimony demonstrates that Weissman and Rosen were working within the confines of their jobs and briefed AIPAC officials more senior than themselves on their conversations with Franklin.