Sharon suffers stroke

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke last night and was rushed to the hospital.

While the 77 year old Sharon was said to be in good shape, the Israeli election has just blown wide open, as Sharon's new Kadima party is expected to fall in the polls, as it was largely held together by Sharon.

While Sharon’s staff is bending over backwards to play down the stroke as minor, release a minimum of medical data and present the prime minister as healthy and eager to return to work, the hospital is keeping him in under surveillence.

Monday, December 19 is the Likud leadership primary in which Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to emerge as the leader of a united Likud/Right coalition. Sharon was able to take a third of Likud's parlimentary membership with him to Kadima. A lengthy illness could lead to second thoughts and send a lot of these defectors back to the Likud and Netanyahu.

In other words, the March Israeli elections have suddenly gotten very interesting.