The Warring States of NPF - The health of Ariel Sharon.

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The health of Ariel Sharon.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/...ron/index.html

Quote:

Sharon to remain sedated after stroke

Programming note: What Ariel Sharon's illness could mean for the Israeli people. Wolf Blitzer is live in Jerusalem. "The Situation Room," 7 p.m. ET

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will remain sedated for as long as three more days and is on life support following a major stroke, the director general of Hadassah Medical Center said Thursday.

Sharon is under anesthesia, breathing with the aid of ventilator, to reduce cranial pressure after the surgery to stop the bleeding in his brain, said Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, who described Sharon's condition as stable.

He said it was not yet possible to assess the effect of the prime minister's second stroke in less than a month.

The 77-year-old's life-threatening stroke Wednesday plunged the country into political uncertainty less than three months before a pivotal March election. (Watch Sharon's stroke throw question marks at Mideast peace -- 2:23)

Asked whether Sharon would recover and whether he would be able to function, Mor-Yosef said, "Predicting the future at this time is impossible."

"We are fighting for the life of the prime minister without any compromise," Mor-Yosef said. The pupils of Sharon's eyes are responding to light, indicating "the brain is operating," he added.

Despite Sharon's illness, Attorney General Meni Mazuz said after Thursday's Cabinet meeting that Israel's elections will be held as set March 28. Sharon has been seeking a third mandate in the election, which is seen as a test for his policy to hand over Gaza and parts of the West Bank to Palestinian control.

On Wednesday, doctors operated on Sharon for more than nine hours altogether.

At first, Sharon underwent about six hours of surgery that initially appeared to stop the bleeding in his brain, Mor-Yosef said.

A subsequent brain scan revealed more bleeding, and Sharon was taken back to the operating room, he said. (Full story)

That surgery lasted about three hours, after which Sharon was moved to the hospital's neurosurgery intensive care unit.

Mor-Yosef said earlier Thursday the bleeding has been stopped.

As Sharon entered surgery, under anesthesia and on a respirator, his ministerial powers were transferred to Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a key ally who followed Sharon in bolting from the Likud bloc to form a new centrist party and shake up Israeli politics. (Profile)

"We are all praying and full of hope for the prime minister's quick recovery," Olmert said. "This is a difficult and unusual situation. The strength of the state of Israel will know how to deal with it."

Sharon, he said, is "not only prime minister and a leader but is the good friend of all of us."

In Washington on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Sharon "a wonderful, historic leader" whose support for a settlement with the Palestinians has registered around the world. (Full story)

Sharon was taken by ambulance Wednesday night from his home in the Negev Desert, in southern Israel, to the hospital after complaining of chest pain and weakness, according to his senior adviser, Raanan Gissin.

Gissin said Israel's government is functioning fully and that security forces are prepared to handle any potential threat.

"This is not the right time to mess with us," he told CNN.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei wished Sharon a swift recovery Thursday, saying his thoughts and prayers were with the Israeli leader.
Stroke a 'volcano in Israel'

Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erakat said Palestinians were worried about the competition among Israeli politicians to replace Sharon. He called on Olmert to support the upcoming Palestinian January 25 parliamentary elections by allowing Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem to vote.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas this week threatened to cancel the vote unless Israel reverses a decision to bar Palestinians from voting in Jerusalem. Questions have grown over how well the ruling Fatah party will fare in the elections as it's pitted against members of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas.

In addition, the Palestinian Authority has struggled to gain control over Gaza since Israel completed its withdrawal in September. (Full story)

When Sharon left the Likud party, said Erakat, "it was a political volcano in Israel." Now, he said, Sharon's hospitalization is a "volcano in Israel." The Palestinians, said Erakat, live closest to that volcano and are the first affected by it.

Sharon is running for a third term as prime minister and head of the new centrist Kadima Party, which he formed after leaving the right-wing Likud Party -- which he had also founded -- in November.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was elected to head Likud after Sharon left, had planned to pull his ministers out of the government Thursday. However, he said Wednesday night his ministers would stay put in an effort to keep the Israeli government stable.
Transfer of powers

Cabinet Secretary Israel Maimon said Wednesday that after consultations with Olmert and Mazuz, the decision was made to transfer Sharon's powers to Olmert when it became clear the prime minister would have to be sedated for treatment.

Olmert, 60, became Sharon's deputy prime minister in 2003 after serving 10 years as mayor of Jerusalem. (Biography)

After Sharon's first stroke, on December 18, the prime minister was placed on blood-thinning medication, which can be associated with an increased risk of brain hemorrhage.

The prime minister had been scheduled to undergo minor surgery Thursday to repair a small hole in his heart, which doctors said contributed to a blood clot that caused the first stroke. (Full story)

Nicknamed "Bulldozer" for his stamina during meetings and long working hours, the overweight Sharon had not been in ill health before his initial stroke. He is twice widowed, has two sons and lives alone.

A former army general and larger-than-life personality in Israel, Sharon was first elected prime minister in 2001 and re-elected in 2003.

Hmm. This is his second stroke in a few weeks. He is 77 years old. Could this be the end of the Prime Minister? What could his death mean to Israel and the world?

I believe, whatever happens to Sharon, whether he lives, dies, or just does not recover his career is at an end.

Depending on his succesor and what their mindset is about everything that has been hapening is a huge factor. If someone who is of the same mindset as Sharon gets elected, hopefully this will only be a small delay in the peace making process. The Gaza pull out will be continued and maybe other plans to make peace will go into effect.

However is someone gets elected who is like Sharon was before his change of heart in recent years, the situation could rapidly decline and relations would become severly strained, if not erupting into a war.

Really depending the the succesor many different things could happen, hopefully the right person will be elected but that might not be the case. In the best of situations Murphy's law will not continue to effect Isreal as it has done to Sharon.

Would it make a large difference to the election and the peace process if he survives until after the election? It's only three months away, isn't it?

I don't think so. If he gets elected again and then dies, then they'll just have another election.

However, I'm worried. Israel seems to be getting progressively more...what's the word...pissed off with the constant attacks from Hamas and the flack they're taking from Palestine. If we get someone with a different approach than Sharon, we could very end up with a war.

Unfortunately, Iran would hop in with Palestine, which would force the US to jump in to help Israel. Then that would involve NATO, and...long story short, the wrong guy being elected could result in World War III, or a very dead Israel. Sharon is going to die, but if he plays his cards right he could ensure that the people elect someone to honor his last wishes for peace.

In my (considerably unprofessional) opinion, the worst case scenario at this point would be for (someone like) Benjamin Netanyahu (who is against settlement withdrawl and wants to break from the "road map") to be elected by Israel in March, and for Hamas to get more power in the upcoming elections.

I think if that happened, the crap would hit the fan like it hasn't in years.

Quote:

the flack they're taking from Palestine.

Flack "they're taking" from Palestine?

What do you call inching a wall closer every day to literally overtake Palestinian land? What do you call the Israeli army killing innocent people and making excuses later? What do you call the formation of Israel itself?

Neither side is blameless. But yes, this is a precarious situation.

What's interesting about U.S. and Israeli politics is that there is so much interaction between the two, since L.B.J., that they are now linked, almost. Whatever occurs in Israel, after Sharon's death, or end of tenure (of which the prior seems most likely, as of yet) will mark a radical change in current U.S. policy in the Gaza strip area. Alright, I'm not sure exactly what will occur in the change of policy, but it's definately going to be something.

Also, Sharon is most likely not going to have a career after this, as was said before. Too much brain damage, and only the U.S. can effectively carry on with a leader that has limited brain function (may the gods of Political correctness forgive me)

Pat Robertson is an asshole.

Then again, so was Sharon. He certainly had a hand in killing an awful lot of people. But who he was or is doesn't really factor in to the situation, it's what he represented of course. The strongest political personalities in the running for Israeli prime minister after him seem to be, as Netanyahu, hardliners, uncompromising and opposed to the peace efforts Sharon enacted.

Kadima seems to still be carrying most of the votes into the next election, but all it takes is a powerful voice of opposition and then the whole political environment changes.

I think it's funny how the two most powerful men involved in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Sharon and Arafat, have been stricken with an ordinary illness, funny how fate just sort of throws a monkey wrench into things eh?

Yeah, Pat Robertson is a dumbass. Someone needs to put a gag in him so he can't speak. Does anyone really listen to that idiot anymore?

Obviously if the news is still making, well, news about him.

A question about israel: What's so hard about allowing Israli and Palistinians to livei n the same place? Sure, they have religious differences, but we in the US and other civilized places MOSTLY manage to keep those from blowing up. The best thing to do here is to introduce an impartial party, and have them.. well, do something to the do-badders. (honestly, I'm all in favor of a public execution if it scares people into being good, then maybe their kids will be good, and peace will come. Or, I could just be hoping to go one day without hearing of more people over there being blown up)

Re: FG

"I think it's funny how the two most powerful men involved in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Sharon and Arafat, have been stricken with an ordinary illness, funny how fate just sort of throws a monkey wrench into things eh?"

Uh, how else did you expect them to die? I wouldn't say fate has anything to do with this, they're both old people, and probably nto in the best shape.