Update on Sharon

I ran a quick search of the net and found the following:

From YNet

PM Sharon clings to life

"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon undergoes all-night surgery after suffering massive brain hemorrhage; Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital says PM still alive. Olmert designated temporary replacement; PM aide: It's not looking good"

From Bloomberg

Sharon Undergoes Surgery After `Significant' Stroke (Update2)

"Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been in surgery since the beginning of the day after he suffered a ``significant'' stroke, prompting a transfer of power to Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Professor Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director of the Hadassah-Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, said in a briefing on Israeli television late yesterday that a magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, test showed a cerebral hemorrhage. Ten minutes later he announced that surgeons were attempting to stop the bleeding.

``Reports from the prime minister's doctors state quite clearly that the surgery is proceeding as doctors expected and that the patient's condition is stable,'' Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin said on Israeli television.

The health emergency immediately weighed on Israeli politics and efforts to bring peace to the region. Sharon's Kadima Party is the front-runner in elections slated for March 28. Sharon, 77, has said he is committed to future negotiations with Palestinian leaders in the framework of the ``road map'' for Middle East peace, while at the same time he acted unilaterally by removing Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip in August.

The Israeli daily Haaretz published a column on its Web site headlined, ``End of the Sharon Era.''

From Haaretz

Surgeons fight to save Sharon's life after stroke, massive cerebral hemorrhage

Neurosurgeons at Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem fought to stabilize Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's condition and stop new bleeding detected in his brain Thursday morning, more than seven hours after he was rushed into emergency surgery having suffered a "far-reaching" stroke and a massive brain hemorrhage.

In the first detailed announcement on Sharon's condition, Professor Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director of the Jerusalem hospital, said that the prime minister had been taken back to the operating room following a CT scan administered after more than six hours of surgery.
"We are in the continuation of this operation," Mor-Yosef told reporters. "There are additional areas that must be treated."

"We expect the surgery will take several more hours. The prime minister is sedated and on a respirator. One could say his condition is grave," Mor-Yosef said.

In addition to the surgery, Sharon was receiving medication to counter the bleeding, and the drugs would take several hours to have an effect, Mor-Yosef said."

And also from Haaretz the reaction of the Arab World

Sharon's illness draws mixed response in Arab world

"Pan-Arab satellite television broadcasters beamed out largely straightforward, nonstop live coverage early Thursday from outside the Jerusalem hospital where Prime Minister Ariel Sharon struggled for his life.

While the Palestinian militant groups expressed satisfaction at Sharon's declining health, some Arab commentators praised him for last summer's disengagement from Gaza.

Sharon's illness cast a huge shadow across the political life of the region, where the Palestinians were to vote in parliamentary elections January 25 and Israel is slated to hold a nationwide vote on March 28.Officials from the Palestinian Authority voiced concern for the future of the peace process in Sharon's possible absence.

"On a purely humanitarian level we feel sorry for Mr Sharon," said Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Shaath.

"Politically it will increase the uncertainty we are facing to get back to the peace process," he said. "It is highly unpredictable to tell what will happen."

A Palestinian commentator on the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya network offered Sharon unexpected praise as "the first Israeli leader who stopped claiming Israel had a right to all of the Palestinians' land," a reference to the recent withdrawal from Gaza.

"A live Sharon is better for the Palestinians now, despite all the crimes he has committed against us," said Ghazi al-Saadi.

Representatives from the offices of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah II contacted Sharon's aides to express their concern over the prime minister's condition and their wishes for his recovery.

The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera aired an extended interview with Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin, who explained the prime minister's condition and treatment.

But a radical Palestinian leader in Damascus, the Syrian capital, called Sharon's health crisis a gift from God.

"We say it frankly that God is great and is able to exact revenge on this butcher. ... We thank God for this gift he presented to us on this new year," Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Syrian-backed faction Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a small radical group, told the Associated Press.

He said Sharon's legacy would be one of huge damage inflicted on the Palestinian people.

In Lebanon, Islamic Jihad leader Anwar Abu Taha said, "We are not sorry about his health and let him go to hell whether he lives or dies... we in Islamic Jihad shall continue our holy war until we regain our rights."

Osama Hamdan, a key figure in the militant Hamas organization, told AP from Lebanon he saw no justification for postponing the Palestinian vote because of the political turmoil in Israel."