It's time for the left in the US and the right in Israel to recognize what Sharon accomplished. Casualties on both sides are down precipitously since he took office. A couple years ago, Bush called him a "man of peace" and was ridiculed; maybe he was right. It's kind of sad how the drastic reduction in violence in Israel and Palestine has been ignored in the US media.

Good political lesson here; when both the left and right are upset with you, you're probably doing something good.

He just had a stroke or something.

I think someone predicted something like that on Art Bell's 2006 predictions show. Cue teh creepy music.

Didn't his visit to the temple mount also help start the recent intifada? Is Ariel Sharon being labeled a 'man of peace' kind of like Henry Kissinger getting the Nobel Prize?

This should really be my new sig.

That's what they say on Al Jazeera, alright.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ ... 510D99.htm
good call

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,180604,00.html

Israeli PM Ariel Sharon Suffers 'Significant' Stroke

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive, life-threatening stroke Wednesday and underwent lengthy surgery to drain blood from his brain after falling ill at his ranch. Powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert.

Doctors placed Sharon on a respirator and were trying to save his life only hours before the hard-charging, overweight, 77-year-old Israeli leader had been scheduled to undergo a procedure to seal a hole in his heart that contributed to a mild stroke on Dec. 18.

Sharon's health crisis came at a time of upheaval among Palestinian factions in Gaza and in the midst of both Israeli and Palestinian election campaigns. Sharon's absence would halt momentum toward further peacemaking with the Palestinians and leave a major vacuum at the head of his new Kadima party, which was expected to head a government after the March 28 vote.

In a written statement, President Bush praised Sharon as "a man of courage and peace," saying he and first lady Laura Bush "share the concerns of the Israeli people ... and we are praying for his recovery."

Israeli politicians across the spectrum expressed hopes for Sharon's health.

Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger called on Israelis to read Psalms and pray for Sharon's health. "We are very, very worried," he said, and prayed for "mercy from Heaven."

Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, said Sharon suffered "a significant stroke," adding that he was "under anesthetic and receiving breathing assistance." A few minutes later, Mor-Yosef emerged to say that initial tests showed Sharon had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, or bleeding in his brain.

Mor-Yosef said Sharon had "massive bleeding and was being transferred to an operating theater."

Dr. Shmuel Shapira of Hadassah Hospital told Channel 10 TV that Sharon was taken to an operating room to drain the blood after suffering what he termed a "massive stroke." Israeli TV said the operation would likely take several hours.

Sharon was put in an ambulance at his ranch in the Negev Desert after complaining about feeling unwell. Shapira said the stroke developed while he was being taken to the hospital, a drive of about an hour.

Sharon's personal physician said early Thursday that he expects Sharon to emerge from surgery "safely."

"The prime minister is currently in surgery, it is proceeding properly," said Dr. Shlomo Segev. "We need to wait patiently. "I expect him to emerge from it safely."

Channel 2 TV said Sharon was suffering from paralysis in his lower body. Analysts on Israeli TV stations said his life could be in danger.

The prime minister has been taking blood thinners since the first stroke to prevent another clot, but such drugs also raise the risk of cerebral hemorrhages, which account for only about 10 percent of strokes. Other possible causes of cerebral hemorrhages are ruptured blood vessels, an aneurysm, or bulge in a vessel wall that bursts, or even chronic high blood pressure.

Doctors who have not examined Sharon but are experts in the field said his chances of a full recovery are slim.

"It's among the most dangerous of all types of strokes," with half of victims dying within a month, said Dr. Robert A. Felberg, a neurologist at Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans.

"The fact that he's on a respirator means its extremely serious," said Dr. Philip Steig, chair of neurosurgery at Weill-Cornell Medical Center in New York. However, he said that depending on the severity of the stroke, doctors may be able to sustain Sharon on a respirator for weeks.

Blood thinners may not have caused the latest stroke but could have made the bleeding worse and may account for its severity, Steig said.

Sharon is about 5-foot-7. Doctors checking him late last month said he weighed 260 pounds at the time of the first stroke but had since lost more than six pounds and was otherwise in good health.

Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon said Sharon's authority was transferred to Olmert because the premier was under general anesthetic.

Security agents and police spread out around the Jerusalem hospital before Sharon arrived, setting up a security perimeter. Later, they surrounded Olmert's residence in Jerusalem. Under Israeli law, Olmert is to serve as acting prime minister until Sharon can resume his powers.

On Dec. 18, Sharon was taken to Hadassah Hospital from his office after suffering the mild stroke. Doctors said he would not suffer long-term effects, but they discovered a birth defect in his heart that apparently contributed to the stroke.

Sharon had been scheduled to check into Hadassah Hospital on Thursday for a procedure to repair a tiny hole between the upper chambers of his heart. Doctors said the blood clot that briefly lodged in Sharon's brain last month, causing the mild stroke, made its way through the hole and from there to a cranial artery.

Sharon first came to prominence as an army officer, setting up a unit that fought Palestinian infiltrators in the 1950s. Advancing through the ranks of the army, he served as commander of the Gaza region after Israel captured the territory in the 1967 war, launching punishing raids.

After serving in the 1973 Mideast war, Sharon left the military and entered politics, forging the hardline Likud Party, which came to power in 1977.

As defense minister, he directed Israel's ill-fated invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and was forced to step down by an Israeli commission of inquiry, which found him indirectly responsible for a massacre of Palestinians in two refugee camps by Christian Phalangist soldiers.

Sharon re-emerged as prime minister in 2001, and two years later he reversed his course of decades of support for Jewish settlement construction and expansion in the West Bank and Gaza, promoting a plan for unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and part of the West Bank. The pullout was completed in September.

The withdrawal fractured his Likud party, and he left it to form Kadima. He was putting together a list of candidates for the parliamentary election when he fell ill Wednesday.

Liked him a lot more since the Gaza pull out. Next stage: moving the walls back to the green line and telling West Bank settlers they're on their own.

He's impressed me lately. I hope he recovers.

Man in Black, I completely agree with Hinny: recently Sharon's been doing some damn fine stuff, he just didn't seem to start out that way I don't mean to say that there is a one to one correlation with Sharon and Kissinger, merely that they both had a major hand in both starting and ending conflicts. Certainly Sharon didn't single handedly restart the intifada, but he must have had some inkling of the Palestinian response would be. I admit it is far too simplistic, but hey, it sounded cute.

im sorry, but i can not hear his name without also hearing


[thundar the barbarian voice]
......ookla, ride
[/thundar the barbarian voice]

How about not pushing through even more settlements in the West Bank? Don't let this puny ass Gaza strip pullout also pull the wool over your eyes, Hinnsta.

And do I have to remind you about Sabra and Shatila?

I don't wish death upon him, or anyone, ever, but the man is piece of trash and he won't be missed anytime soon.

Well, it's either him or Netanyahu, so I'd much rather he stay alive.

not looking good for him. he had surgery to stop the bleeding, but when they scanned his brain after it, it was still bleeding, so he's going back in.

The events at Sabra and Shatila are horrible, there's no doubt about...Sharon's role is disputed, to say the least...here's a more objective overview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre.


I'll go along with your assumption that Sharon has nothing to do with the reduction in violence, how do you explain it?

Wikipedia is the best you can do for an "objective account" of Sabra and Shatila? In resigning from his post, the guy practically admits that he at the very best, he goofed. And given the background of the actual events, and the general history, it is more that likely that he more likely fell short of doing anything to stop the inevitable massacre.

A commander with clean hands in such a situation would have actively done more to prevent the Phalangists from even the slightest opportunity to run amok.

The case against Sharon is overwhelming and backed even by several hardline former Israeli soldiers, a couple of whom I've met and had classes with. But you of course can believe whatever the hell you want to believe.

An exactly what ahve the palestinians done as a gesture of epace in repsonce to the Gaza pullout? Oh yeah, they started firing rockets from even closer now.



I did read any evidence that he did anything but not act against the massacre. If that is a crime, aren't all nation leaders war criminals for not acting against Sudan? And didn't the "World Court" drop the case against him?



Agreed. I can't wait to we are off oil and the middle east rots in f**king hell.

Nice job of avoiding the question

I'm sorry, what was the question?

Why does Buggy keep his family locked up in the house?

Not surprisingly, Pat Robertson has an opinion on this topic:
http://www.kare11.com/news/cooler_artic ... yid=115851