GAZA CITY, 6 January 2006 — Israel’s hard-line Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was last night fighting for his life in a Jerusalem hospital after a massive stroke. The 77-year-old Israeli leader was put on 48-hour sedation by doctors at Hadassah Hospital after a seven-hour surgery to stop bleeding in his brain.
Medical experts were pessimistic about the chances of his recovery and feared that Sharon would probably end up in a vegetative state if at all he survived and both Israelis and Palestinians were contemplating politics without Sharon.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert quickly convened a Cabinet meeting after being named acting prime minister and given a beefed-up security detail. Israel’s attorney general announced that despite Sharon’s illness, a general election would be held as planned on March 28.
Hospital Director Shlomo Mor-Yosef said he did not know how much brain damage Sharon may have suffered from a type of stroke that is often fatal.
Sharon’s sudden turn for the worse, at the height of his popularity, stunned Israelis, who had relied on the tough ex-general to steer them through turbulent times. Rabbis called Israelis to flock to synagogues and say special prayers for Sharon.
Palestinians followed reports on Sharon’s condition with a mix of apprehension and glee, and some officials said they feared the dramatic events would derail Jan. 25 parliamentary elections in the West Bank and Gaza.
But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Israeli premier’s fate would not affect Palestinian elections.
“What happens to Sharon affects Israel first of all and has repercussions for the region but will not lead to a delay in the Palestinian elections,” Abbas told reporters in Ramallah after returning from a Middle East tour.
“We see (Sharon’s hospitalization) as an important and serious event and are following with great concern any harm that may come to him,” he added, saying he was monitoring developments in the Israeli premier’s condition constantly.
Abbas earlier telephoned the Israeli prime minister’s office with his best wishes for Sharon’s recovery. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei has also sent a letter to the Israeli government expressing “great concern” over Sharon’s condition.
Hamas said the Middle East would be “a better place” without Sharon. “The world is on the verge of being rid of one of its worst leaders,” chief Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. “Sharon’s fate is divine intervention reserved for despots and evil-doers.”
The Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP-GC) said Sharon’s absence from the political scene would have no impact on Zionist ideology.
Friends of Israel prayed for his early recovery. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: “We are concentrating our prayers and thoughts on the hope of his recovery.” She called Sharon a “huge and gigantic figure in Israeli politics.”
— Additional input from agencies
