Disaster
All our thoughts are with Prime Minister Sharon, his family, and Israel.
UPDATE 1: Brain hemorrhage:
Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital Director-General Prof. Shlomo Mor Yosef announced that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has suffered a brain hemorrhage and has been rushed to surgery.
UPDATE 2: Walla (Hebrew) is reporting a leak from the hospital to the effect that this is a "dramatic event that will be over in a few hours". We have literally no idea what that means - if Sharon is stable (doubtful since he was rushed to surgery 30 minutes ago) or if the worst is expected.
UPDATE 3: YNet: : "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's condition is very serious... severe stroke. Walla (Hebrew): Sharon suffered damage to several bodily functions and its reasonable to expect he will not be returning to normal functionoing any time soon.
UPDATE 4: Worse and worse. Walla (Hebrew): "Sharon suffered massive bleeding in his brain and everyone can understand what that means". This is devestating.
UPDATE 5: Sharon's people are now speaking of needing a miracle.
UPDATE 6: Things "don't look good". Sharon's condition is life-threatening. Security has been boosted around Ehud Olmert's residence in anticipation of him assuming the office of the Prime Minister.
UPDATE 7: Political stuff - Likud will obviously put the knives away for a little bit. Netanyahu's statement is out - praying for Sharon's recovery. Shas's chief rabbi - another political opponent - is calling on the nation to pray for Sharon's well-being.
UPDATE 8: Sharon is entering his second hour of surgery.
UPDATE 9: Walla now has a full story up. Before they were talking as if the question was when PM Sharon would emerge from surgery. The headline of the full story: Sharon fighting for his life.
UPDATE 10: YNet reports Sharon is still in surgery. Walla's got a statement from Sharon's personal doctor, but it's unclear if these are the same people. The Walla update also has a quote to the effect that the doctor expects Sharon to emerge together and in peace from the surgery, which is intentionally ominous sounding.
UPDATE 11: Yeah, YNet is now reporting the the statement from Sharon's personal doctor, so that previous statement was a seperate hospital spokesperson. They've also translated the verb as "hopes" instead of "expects" like we have it.
UPDATE 12: We finally got the Channel 10 feed working off of Walla. They're talking about the political consequences of Sharon's condition. Kadima is already making contingency plans. There was a question on this just emailed to us, so quick synopsis: elections are set for late March in Israel after Sharon's request to dissolve the Israeli government was granted by President Katsav last December. The expectation had been that Sharon would personally lead his new party - Kadima - to an (at least recently) unprecedented level of control. However, that relied on his personal popularity with the Israeli public. In the short-term, Deputy Prime Minister Olmert will take over the government. In the long-term, even the talking heads on Israeli TV are baffled right now.
UPDATE 13: Not that this is either here nor there, but the news anchors are absolutely terrified. They're interviewing someone who's praying on the air, and they're asking him what the most appropriate prayers for people to give are.
UPDATE 14: Channel 10 "... blood in the brain... I expect that they gave him some sort of [MRI]... they knew where they were going before they went in"
UPDATE 15: Political updates: it looks more and more likely that Likud will call off their decision to leave the government (they were going to formally resign this weekend). In the meantime, the government goes on: transfer of power has occured to Deputy Prime Minster Ehud Olmert, and he will presumably lead the country either until Sharon recovers or until the elections in March. Channel 10 is pointing out that Olmert technically wields unprecedented power - because Sharon was doing so much and he was already doing so much, he now has more responsibilities than any other Prime Minister in history... The end of the Sharon era.
UDPATE 16: Channel 10: "He'll live" (!!!)
UPDATE 1: Brain hemorrhage:
Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital Director-General Prof. Shlomo Mor Yosef announced that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has suffered a brain hemorrhage and has been rushed to surgery.
UPDATE 2: Walla (Hebrew) is reporting a leak from the hospital to the effect that this is a "dramatic event that will be over in a few hours". We have literally no idea what that means - if Sharon is stable (doubtful since he was rushed to surgery 30 minutes ago) or if the worst is expected.
UPDATE 3: YNet: : "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's condition is very serious... severe stroke. Walla (Hebrew): Sharon suffered damage to several bodily functions and its reasonable to expect he will not be returning to normal functionoing any time soon.
UPDATE 4: Worse and worse. Walla (Hebrew): "Sharon suffered massive bleeding in his brain and everyone can understand what that means". This is devestating.
UPDATE 5: Sharon's people are now speaking of needing a miracle.
UPDATE 6: Things "don't look good". Sharon's condition is life-threatening. Security has been boosted around Ehud Olmert's residence in anticipation of him assuming the office of the Prime Minister.
UPDATE 7: Political stuff - Likud will obviously put the knives away for a little bit. Netanyahu's statement is out - praying for Sharon's recovery. Shas's chief rabbi - another political opponent - is calling on the nation to pray for Sharon's well-being.
UPDATE 8: Sharon is entering his second hour of surgery.
UPDATE 9: Walla now has a full story up. Before they were talking as if the question was when PM Sharon would emerge from surgery. The headline of the full story: Sharon fighting for his life.
UPDATE 10: YNet reports Sharon is still in surgery. Walla's got a statement from Sharon's personal doctor, but it's unclear if these are the same people. The Walla update also has a quote to the effect that the doctor expects Sharon to emerge together and in peace from the surgery, which is intentionally ominous sounding.
UPDATE 11: Yeah, YNet is now reporting the the statement from Sharon's personal doctor, so that previous statement was a seperate hospital spokesperson. They've also translated the verb as "hopes" instead of "expects" like we have it.
UPDATE 12: We finally got the Channel 10 feed working off of Walla. They're talking about the political consequences of Sharon's condition. Kadima is already making contingency plans. There was a question on this just emailed to us, so quick synopsis: elections are set for late March in Israel after Sharon's request to dissolve the Israeli government was granted by President Katsav last December. The expectation had been that Sharon would personally lead his new party - Kadima - to an (at least recently) unprecedented level of control. However, that relied on his personal popularity with the Israeli public. In the short-term, Deputy Prime Minister Olmert will take over the government. In the long-term, even the talking heads on Israeli TV are baffled right now.
UPDATE 13: Not that this is either here nor there, but the news anchors are absolutely terrified. They're interviewing someone who's praying on the air, and they're asking him what the most appropriate prayers for people to give are.
UPDATE 14: Channel 10 "... blood in the brain... I expect that they gave him some sort of [MRI]... they knew where they were going before they went in"
UPDATE 15: Political updates: it looks more and more likely that Likud will call off their decision to leave the government (they were going to formally resign this weekend). In the meantime, the government goes on: transfer of power has occured to Deputy Prime Minster Ehud Olmert, and he will presumably lead the country either until Sharon recovers or until the elections in March. Channel 10 is pointing out that Olmert technically wields unprecedented power - because Sharon was doing so much and he was already doing so much, he now has more responsibilities than any other Prime Minister in history... The end of the Sharon era.
UDPATE 16: Channel 10: "He'll live" (!!!)
