Israeli PM Ariel Sharon fights for life

Israeli-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, sedated and on a respirator, clung to life yesterday after a massive stroke that is likely to create a huge vacuum in Israeli politics and the Middle East peace process. Surgeons at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital said they stemmed the bleeding in the 77-year-old leader’s brain in a seven-hour operation and described his condition as critical but stable.

Hospital director Shlomo Mor-Yosef, in an update to reporters several hours after surgery was completed, said Sharon would be kept in “deep sedation” and on a respirator for at least the next 24 hours. Mor-Yosef did not say how much brain damage Sharon may have suffered and gave no prognosis for recovery.A cerebral haemorrhage, or bleeding stroke, felled Sharon on Wednesday in the midst of his fight for re-election on a promise to end conflict with the Palestinians, who lost their own iconic leader, Yasser Arafat, to a brain haemorrhage in November 2004 after weeks of illness.Sharon, a former general, on whom Washington has pinned hopes for Middle East peace, has never designated a successor.His deputy, Ehud Olmert, was named acting prime minister.But political analysts said the general election Sharon had been widely expected to win as head of the new centrist Kadima party would become an open race if he died or was incapacitated.The Justice Ministry said under Israeli law the March 28 vote must go ahead as planned regardless of whether Sharon runs.Sharon, seriously overweight and hit by a mild stroke on Dec.18, was rushed for treatment late on Wednesday from his ranch in southern Israel after complaining he felt unwell.He has been a dominant figure for decades in shaping the Middle East.The pullout of Israeli soldiers and settlers Sharon completed in the Gaza Strip in September despite right-wing opposition in the Jewish state raised hopes for peacemaking.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas telephoned Sharon’s office to inquire about his health and wish him a speedy recovery, Abbas’s spokesman said.Deputy Palestinian Prime Minister Nabil Shaath, however, said he did not believe Sharon ever had any faith in the peace process, and that his condition would increase uncertainty over getting back to negotiations.Battered by Sharon’s harsh measures to fight a five-year-old uprising, militant factions reacted with glee.”The downfall of the Dracula of the century is a day of happiness for every Palestinian and every Muslim,” Abu Abir, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, a coalition of militants, said in a statement.Israeli assets tumbled on news of Sharon’s condition.The Israeli shekel fell to a one-month low, dropping 1,34 per cent to 4.6370 against the dollar at midday, while Tel Aviv shares plunged nearly 6 per cent at the open of trade.Medical experts agreed the prime minister was unlikely to pull through without his faculties being seriously impaired.”With all due caution, it appears as though the era of Sharon leading Israel has reached its tragic end,” wrote Aluf Ben, Haaretz’s diplomatic correspondent.Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s biggest newspaper, summed up Sharon’s situation in a banner headline: “The Final Battle”.Sharon had been due to undergo an operation on Thursday at Hadassah to repair a tiny hole in his heart thought to have caused the blood clot that led to last month’s stroke.Doctors speculated on Israeli television that blood-thinning drugs administered over the past two weeks may have contributed to Wednesday’s massive stroke.Sharon, popularly known as “The Bulldozer” spent several days in hospital last month but quickly ploughed back into a punishing public schedule.He founded Kadima after quitting the right-wing Likud in the face of a party rebellion over the Gaza withdrawal that ended 38 years of military rule in the coastal territory.Sharon has campaigned on a platform of readiness to give up more occupied land in the West Bank as a way to end decades of conflict, but has vowed to keep Israel’s hold on major settlement blocs.A large part of Sharon’s popularity among Israelis stems from a belief that he could take bold steps others would not get away with, given his background as the archetypal hawk.But Palestinians have long suspected that Sharon’s plans for ending conflict meant he would dictate terms that would leave them only fragments of the state they seek.Hopes for progress in Middle East peacemaking were already dwindling given the possibility of a delay to a January 25 Palestinian election and growing internal unrest in Gaza and the West Bank as well as spurts of Israeli-Palestinian violence.In a new development, the Palestinian Elections Commission said it had resigned in protest at what it called government interference, in a move that could obstruct the vote.-Nampa-ReutersMor-Yosef did not say how much brain damage Sharon may have suffered and gave no prognosis for recovery.A cerebral haemorrhage, or bleeding stroke, felled Sharon on Wednesday in the midst of his fight for re-election on a promise to end conflict with the Palestinians, who lost their own iconic leader, Yasser Arafat, to a brain haemorrhage in November 2004 after weeks of illness.Sharon, a former general, on whom Washington has pinned hopes for Middle East peace, has never designated a successor.His deputy, Ehud Olmert, was named acting prime minister.But political analysts said the general election Sharon had been widely expected to win as head of the new centrist Kadima party would become an open race if he died or was incapacitated.The Justice Ministry said under Israeli law the March 28 vote must go ahead as planned regardless of whether Sharon runs.Sharon, seriously overweight and hit by a mild stroke on Dec.18, was rushed for treatment late on Wednesday from his ranch in southern Israel after complaining he felt unwell.He has been a dominant figure for decades in shaping the Middle East.The pullout of Israeli soldiers and settlers Sharon completed in the Gaza Strip in September despite right-wing opposition in the Jewish state raised hopes for peacemaking.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas telephoned Sharon’s office to inquire about his health and wish him a speedy recovery, Abbas’s spokesman said.Deputy Palestinian Prime Minister Nabil Shaath, however, said he did not believe Sharon ever had any faith in the peace process, and that his condition would increase uncertainty over getting back to negotiations.Battered by Sharon’s harsh measures to fight a five-year-old uprising, militant factions reacted with glee.”The downfall of the Dracula of the century is a day of happiness for every Palestinian and every Muslim,” Abu Abir, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, a coalition of militants, said in a statement.Israeli assets tumbled on news of Sharon’s condition.The Israeli shekel fell to a one-month low, dropping 1,34 per cent to 4.6370 against the dollar at midday, while Tel Aviv shares plunged nearly 6 per cent at the open of trade.Medical experts agreed the prime minister was unlikely to pull through without his faculties being seriously impaired.”With all due caution, it appears as though the era of Sharon leading Israel has reached its tragic end,” wrote Aluf Ben, Haaretz’s diplomatic correspondent.Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s biggest newspaper, summed up Sharon’s situation in a banner headline: “The Final Battle”.Sharon had been due to undergo an operation on Thursday at Hadassah to repair a tiny hole in his heart thought to have caused the blood clot that led to last month’s stroke.Doctors speculated on Israeli television that blood-thinning drugs administered over the past two weeks may have contributed to Wednesday’s massive stroke.Sharon, popularly known as “The Bulldozer” spent several days in hospital last month but quickly ploughed back into a punishing public schedule.He founded Kadima after quitting the right-wing Likud in the face of a party rebellion over the Gaza withdrawal that ended 38 years of military rule in the coastal territory.Sharon has campaigned on a platform of readiness to give up more occupied land in the West Bank as a way to end decades of conflict, but has vowed to keep Israel’s hold on major settlement blocs.A large part of Sharon’s popularity among Israelis stems from a belief that he could take bold steps others would not get away with, given his background as the archetypal hawk.But Palestinians have long suspected that Sharon’s plans for ending conflict meant he would dictate terms that would leave them only fragments of the state they seek.Hopes for progress in Middle East peacemaking were already dwindling given the possibility of a delay to a January 25 Palestinian election and growing internal unrest in Gaza and the West Bank as well as spurts of Israeli-Palestinian violence.In a new development, the Palestinian Elections Commission said it had resigned in protest at what it called government interference, in a move that could obstruct the vote.-Nampa-Reuters

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