Sharon clings to life, so do peace hopes

A cerebral hemorrhage, or bleeding stroke, felled Sharon late on Wednesday in the midst of his fight for re-election on a promise to end conflict with the Palestinians.

The former general, on whom the US has pinned hopes for Middle East peace, has never designated a successor. His deputy, Ehud Olmert, was named acting PM. But political analysts said the general election Sharon had been widely expected to win as head of a new centrist party would become an open race if he died or was incapacitated. The Justice Ministry said under Israeli law the March 28 vote must go ahead as planned regardless of whether Sharon runs.

‘‘The Prime Minister had a CT scan that showed that the bleeding has stopped,’’ Shlomo Mor-Yosef of Hadassah hospital told reporters. ‘‘All his vital signs are functional and stable. The Prime Minister is in critical condition.’’

Sharon, seriously overweight and hit by a mild stroke just last month, was rushed for treatment late on Wednesday. Interestingly Sharon’s old foe Yasser Arafat had also died of brain hemorrhage in November 2004 ending weeks of illness.

Sharon has been a dominant figure for decades in shaping the Middle East. The pullout of Israeli soldiers and settlers Sharon completed in the Gaza Strip in September despite right-wing Opposition in the Jewish state raised hopes for peacemaking.

Haaretz newspaper said on its website that Sharon was paralysed in half of his body. Medical experts agreed the Prime Minister was unlikely to pull through the operation without his faculties being at least seriously impaired.

‘‘With all due caution, it appears as though the era of Sharon leading Israel has reached its tragic end,’’ wrote Aluf Ben, Haaretz’s diplomatic correspondent. Yedioth Ahronoth summed up Sharon’s situation in a terse banner headline: ‘The Final Battle’.

US President George W Bush, a close ally of Sharon, said ‘‘we are praying’’ for his recovery. Bush has relied heavily on Sharon as he attempts to coax Israelis and Palestinians into a peace agreement. He scolded Sharon after the Prime Minister’s stroke in December, telling him to watch what he eats and get more exercise.

The hefty ex-general popularly known as ‘The Bulldozer’ spent several days in hospital after last month’s ailment but quickly ploughed back into a punishing public schedule.

Deputy Palestinian PM Nabil Shaath said he did not believe Sharon ever had any faith in the peace process, but his condition would increase uncertainty over getting back to negotiations.

Battered by Sharon’s harsh measures to fight a five-year-old uprising, militant factions reacted with glee. ‘‘The whole region will be better off with him absent,’’ said powerful Islamic group Hamas. ‘‘Sharon was the one who carried out massacres and terrorism for decades against our people.’’

Hopes for progress were already dwindling given the possibility of a delay to a January 25 Palestinian election and growing internal unrest in the Gaza Strip and West Bank as well as an increase in violence with Israel.