Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s life is in danger, a hospital spokesperson said on Saturday, after doctors discovered a ”serious deterioration” in his digestive tract.
”One could say that the life of the prime minister is in danger,” said Ron Krumer, spokesperson for the Haddasah hospital in Jerusalem where Sharon is being treated.
”A serious deterioration of his digestive tract was discovered after an examination and doctors decided to operate,” Krumer added.
The 77-year-old premier was hospitalised on January 4 after suffering a massive stroke and has been comatose since then, although doctors have been trying to gradually bring him out of the coma.
Since his collapse, Ehud Olmert has stepped in as acting prime minister and Israelis are growing accustomed to political life without Sharon, focused more on the prospect of a Hamas-run government in the Palestinian territories and next month’s election in Israel.
When Sharon, one of the most popular prime ministers in Israel’s history although he has a controversial military record, suffered his massive brain haemorrhage, the nation ground to a halt.
Five weeks later, politics and national preoccupations have moved on, although the centrist party Kadima that Sharon founded before his collapse remains ahead of its rivals in the opinion polls.
When Hamas won the Palestinian election on January 25, it changed the rules of Middle East politics and Israel was confronted with an unexpected nightmare: the prospect of a government on its doorstep committed to its destruction.
Israel is now six weeks away from a general election on March 28 in which Sharon, regardless of his fate, is not a candidate.
Prime ministerial stand-in Olmert has proved his mettle in standing up to settlers and Palestinian violence, and he has staved off predictions that Kadima was a one-man show that could flop without its alma mater.
While not sitting in Sharon’s chair at Cabinet meetings, he has emerged from the shadows to become a leader dealing with key issues — the evacuation of settlement outposts, the Iranian threat and the Palestinian election fall-out.
Earlier this month, Kadima unveiled its list of candidates for Israel’s election.
Sharon, who left the Likud party he helped found amid feuding over the historic Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip last summer, was not included.
A recent opinion poll forecast that Kadima would win 42 of the 120 Knesset seats, almost double that of its nearest rival, the Labour party.
”Sharon has left the political scene. From now on that’s a fact, but one month after his stroke his party has not weakened at all,” said political scientist Yaron Ezrachi of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
”It is clear today that the majority of the population will vote for his ideas and for someone who is seen as the best political heir, Ehud Olmert.”
Military operations against Palestinian militants have continued, and Israel was targeted by a Palestinian suicide bombing on January 19 for the first time without Sharon in charge.
The illegal outpost of Amona in the West Bank was dismantled without Sharon — once seen as the only leader strong enough to run roughshod over religious claims to Palestinian land they consider their Biblical right.
Whether Israelis really believe Olmert has the muscle to replace Sharon on a permanent basis after the election remains to be seen, as some observers fear the rise of Hamas could strengthen the right-wing. – AFP
