source

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to hospital on Wednesday after suffering a major stroke and a senior source said he feared there may be no chance of recovery from a brain hemorrhage.

Sharon, a hefty 77-year-old ex-general, has for decades been a key figure in shaping the Middle East.

He has dominated the political stage in the Jewish state and was widely expected to win re-election in March on a platform of ending conflict with the Palestinians.

Sharon's prime ministerial powers were transferred temporarily to his deputy, Ehud Olmert, cabinet secretary Yisrael Maimon told reporters outside Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem.

"The diagnosis is a significant stroke. The prime minister has been anesthetized and is on a breathing device," Hadassah chief Shlomo Mor-Yosef said.

He said Sharon suffered a brain hemorrhage and would undergo an operation immediately to try to stop the bleeding.

"It looks very bad. I don't know if he will recover," said one senior political source.

Sharon is very much a one-man show and if he had to leave the scene it would inevitably mean major political upheaval. Recent polls have not shown Olmert to be seen as a long term successor.

The Israeli leader, who orchestrated a pullout from the Gaza Strip last September to end 38 years of occupation, that raised hopes for Middle East peace, suffered what doctors described as a mild stroke on December 18.

He took ill at his Sycamore ranch in southern Israel on Wednesday, on the eve of a scheduled operation to repair a tiny hole in his heart thought to have contributed to his stroke last month.

Sharon spent several days in hospital but plowed back into a punishing public schedule ahead of an Israeli general election scheduled for March 28.

Opinion polls have shown Sharon, prime minister since 2001, was on course to win the ballot as leader of the new centrist Kadima faction he founded after quitting the right-wing Likud party in the face of a party rebellion over the Gaza pullout.

Who's got him in the death pool?!?!?

I thought you meant osborne.

this is gonna be trouble...

Everyone.

Even the rabbis.

Damnit, I thought this was about my biological mother.

That's not a word.

you're retarded

Weirdly I just read this paragraph the other day by much respected BBC journalist John Simpson. He was making his predictions for 2006

"...Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, will wipe out both the Labour Party and Likud, the party he left, in the forthcoming election.

He will then try for a long-term deal with the Palestinians, based on an Israeli pull-out from much of the West Bank."

Hmmmm.....

You're magic.

You and Blue Milk need to make babies together.

I'm PMSing. No can do right now.

what? I can't lick knives unless i'm a retard?

no, because you lick knives and take black and white photos of it. duuuuude. it's like, art.

It was a part of my film, actually. The film was in black and white, and it's about my biological mother. I can put the full explanation of my film and each clip in this thread if you'd like.

Let's get back to important things... this Sharon fellow... good guy?

i told you to post your film for peeps to see, but you slacked.

I'm way too embarrassed. It was the first film i've done. I've only done two sofar but that's because of limited access to a camera.
I refuse to show the newest one to my mother, though.

why?

I don't know. I took hair out of my head and cut it up and glued it to my face, and I put on red lipstick and suck on a banana. It'd just be awkward.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that we've been waiting a long time for someone to fill Tom Green's shoes.

I made a Russian Propaganda film in college. It had a torture scene much like the one you just mentioned.

heh

what the hell? this certainly is the biggest thread hijack ive ever seen.

Apparently, this is where we go to up our post-count.