Sharon in serious condition after stroke
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-05 19:53

According to Israeli law, Olmert, as vice premier, assumed the post of acting prime minister for 100 days. An election will be held in that time, apparently as scheduled on March 28. If Sharon should die, the Cabinet would choose a replacement, said legal analyst Moshe Negbi.

Sharon has been prominent in Israeli life for more than five decades. He first rose to prominence as an army officer in the 1950s, advancing through the ranks and gaining attention during the 1967 war. Sharon left the military for politics, forging the hardline Likud Party, which came to power in 1977.

As defense minister, Sharon directed Israel's ill-fated invasion of Lebanon in 1982 during which an Israeli commission found him indirectly responsible for a massacre of Palestinians in two refugee camps by Christian Phalangist soldiers.

Sharon re-emerged as prime minister in 2001 soon after the outbreak of a new round of Israeli-Palestinian violence, and two years later he reversed his decades-long course of supporting Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, and pushed through a plan to withdraw from Gaza and part of the West Bank. The pullout was completed in September.

The withdrawal fractured Likud, and he bolted to form Kadima. He was putting together a list of candidates for the election when he fell ill Wednesday.

In the election, Sharon was to face off against Likud's candidate, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Amir Peretz, the union leader who recently took control of the dovish Labor Party.

Olmert, who could emerge as Sharon's successor as head of Kadima, would likely have a far tougher time in the election than Sharon, Israel's most popular politician.

Sharon was put in an ambulance at his ranch in the Negev Desert after complaining of feeling unwell. The stroke happened during the hourlong drive to Hadassah Hospital, Dr. Shmuel Shapira of the hospital told Channel 10 TV.

Sharon was taken to the same hospital last month after suffering a mild stroke caused by a blood clot. Doctors said he would not suffer long-term effects, but they discovered a birth defect in his heart that apparently contributed to the stroke. They originally planned to fix the hole in a procedure Thursday.

He took blood thinners after the first stroke to prevent another clot, but such drugs also raise the risk of cerebral hemorrhages.