Ariel Sharon removed from power

?Significant stroke? incapacitates prime minister; Olmert takes over

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By Stan Goodenough
January 05, 2006

As of 11:30 PM Wednesday evening, Ariel Sharon is no longer in power in Israel.

For the second time in three weeks, the prime minister was rushed to Hadassah En Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem at approximately 10:15 PM suffering from a stroke, this time, according to doctors on the scene, a ?significant? one.

We go to press as Sharon is undergoing emergency surgery after having been diagnosed, according to reports, with ?massive bleeding? in the brain and with paralysis of his lower body.

His physical condition has incapacitated him as prime minister, and his powers have been taken over by Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Olmert will hold this post for the next 100 days. General elections in Israel are scheduled to take place in less than this time, on March 28.

News of Sharon?s condition triggered a frenzy of media coverage and speculation.

Earlier Wednesday afternoon Sharon had told a gathering that, if re-elected on March 28, he planned to continue with his "disengagement" policies.

Less than two hours after the initial reports of his illness, an intense-sounding Wolf Blitzer of CNN was consulting with a host of experts on whether or not the 77-year-old Israeli leader would survive, how serious his condition was, what would happen to his new Kadima Party with his departure from the helm, and what impact all this would have on the Israeli-Arab conflict and on the whole Middle East.

The conversation focused on the fact that US President George W. Bush depended on Sharon to oversee the implementation and realization of the American leader?s ?two state solution? to the Israeli-?Palestinian? conflict.

Sharon?s Kadima Party is running on a platform to relinquish integral parts of the Jewish homeland for the creation of a Palestinian state. Before being struck down, the prime minister appeared unstoppable, as Israelis weary of war and disillusioned by a surfeit of failed peace plans chose to put their trust in his policies.

Without him it is anticipated that the Israeli people will be milling around more than ever like sheep without a shepherd.

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