Note: This post was first published approximately 15 minutes after the first news report that Sharon had suffered a brain hemmorrhage.

Our prayers are with Ariel Sharon, a lifelong public servant.

According to my neurologist correspondent, his repo

I wasn’t asking for a Hasmonean, Ben. I’m asking for a fighter.

I think that, for all his flaws, Netanyahu is both the best candidate in the field and the most electable.

It is always tempting to take an historic event and see evidence that God is on your side. So I would be suspicious of anyone who claimed that Hashem “touched” Sharon last month, which led to much media commentary that this would slash voter support for Kadima, but Kadima’s poll numbers yesterday were stronger than ever, so Sharon was “touched” again.

I hope that Sharon recovers and lives for many more years, but if I had my druthers his future political role would be that of a “wise old man” on the outside, sort of like the post-resignation Nixon.

Meryl has a post up called “The End of the Sharon Era”. I suspect she’s right. In the unlikely event that Arik recovers, he will probably be in no shape to run the country. Israel needs a Maccabee indeed. Our…

Meryl, please don’t take the MSM’s descriptions of the political parties at face value.

Kadimah is the Sharon family’s flimsy political life-raft, which drew the rats and vermin pushed out of the other parties – either because they lost in primaries and/or because of their corruption. They stand for nothing but clinging to Sharon’s coattails – and now that events have taken such an unfortunate and (G-d forbid) tragic turn, they are likely to sink in the polls, taking much of the scum in Israeli politics along with them.

Labor is quixotically returning to socialism, trying to mine old populist and ethnic fault lines. Yet many Israelis know in their bones that life is better now than it was in a socialized economy.

I suggest you take another good look at Netanyahu and the Likud. Going by the election results – and the platform Sharon ran on last time – Likud’s platform is the most truly ‘centrist’ – and the most rational in both security and economic policy.

Reported on FoxNews, Ariel Sharon had a second stroke, was just rushed to the hospital.
Announcer on FoxNews: “He is scheduled to be 78 next month.”
Lair Simon on AIM: “Sorry, but you’ll have to push it back a week or two.&#8…

Interesting times.

It didn’t take long for the vultures to start circling among the Palestinians. In fact, the Palestinians barely let up in their continued mayhem up and down the Gaza Strip. While Israel prays for Sharon’s health, the Palestinians by and large await a…

From the AP:

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to a Jerusalem hospital late Wednesday after feeling ill, …