Israel prays for Sharon
Shock, grief and concern for the future. In recent years, Sharon had become a father or grandfather for the nation, eclipsing all other political figures.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) It was a sleepless night not only for doctors and officials but also, it seems, for a considerable part of the Israeli population, which kept track of non-stop broadcasts updating news on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's health, following the massive stroke he suffered last night while resting at his "Sycamore" ranch ahead of heart surgery that he had been scheduled to undergo.
After nine hours of surgery and still fighting for his life, Sharon has been transferred to the neurological ward of Jerusalem's famed Hadassah Hospital.
While the Israeli population prays fervently for his recovery, medical experts are hinting in media interviews that, even if Sharon survives, the damage to his brain would be too great to allow him to return to the exercise of his duties. In fact, concomitantly with Sharon's arrival at emergency, the Cabinet secretary announced that Treasury Minister Ehud Olmert has been named acting prime minister.
Shock, grief, and profound worry prevail among all Israelis today. After having been labelled for many years as a "violent non-conformist", Sharon has become in recent years a father, or perhaps a grandfather, to the nation. A benevolent and reassuring figure on which to lean and trust, reducing all other political figures to dwarf stature.
Only recently had he left the right-wing Likud party, which he himself had founded some 30 years ago, to create "ex novo" a centrist party, Kadima, with which to run in the forthcoming early elections that he called for March 28. A party that polls said could easily win but that depended entirely on the person of Sharon rather than on an ideology or a real platform for government.
While the elderly (78 years) premier continues to struggle for his life and doctors desperately seek to contain serious brain damage, shocked politicians are trying to define what paths to take post-Sharon, with the likelihood that political competition will go back to the traditional test between Likud (now led by right-wing extremist Benjamin Netanyahu, a fierce liberalist) and the Labour Party, led by the former union leader, Amin Peres, who dreams of a return to the typical social democracy that characterized the first decades of Israel's existence. Meanwhile, all the figures that had converged on the Kadima Party risk finding themselves as political orphans, stripped of any real chance of gaining power.
The hours to come should allow for a more in-depth reflection on Sharon's departure from the political scene, the state of Israel, its neighbours and the regional situation overall.
That there will be an impact, and an important one, is evidenced by the very keen interest in Sharon's condition expressed by Palestinian politicians and mass-media in neighbouring Arab countries.
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09/01/2006
