Ariel Sharon

NEW YORK -- The youngest son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is writing a book about his father. Gilad Sharon's memoir, "Sharon: A Leader and a Father," is tentatively scheduled to come out in 2010.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered a crackdown on organized crime in Israel, signaling a new focus on domestic issues while he prepares to seek reelection to office as head of the new Kadima party. Crime has risen in Israel in recent years, with gangs involved in illegal gambling and trafficking in drugs and sex workers. Meanwhile, Sharon's aides said he would undergo a heart procedure Thursday to mend a small hole that apparently led to his recent stroke.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive and life-threatening cerebral hemorrhage Wednesday evening and was rushed into all-night emergency surgery in a desperate attempt to halt extensive bleeding. The reins of national leadership were handed over to Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The 77-year-old prime minister's medical team painted a picture of a life-and-death struggle, saying he was in intensive care after nearly eight hours of surgery.

Hemorrhagic strokes, characterized by bleeding in the brain, are less common than strokes caused by blood clots but are usually more lethal. About 17% of strokes are caused by the rupture of a weakened blood vessel in the brain, and fewer than half of those suffering such strokes survive beyond one month, the American Heart Assn. says. Many of those who do survive, moreover, suffer debilitating injuries, including such problems as speech impairment and paralysis.

For Palestinians, Ariel Sharon has long symbolized the iron fist of Israel. He is remembered as the leader who fathered the hated Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and who besieged Palestinian cities at the height of the intifada. He is loathed for the concrete wall he is building to divide Israel from a shrinking West Bank, and for his unwavering refusal to deal with Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian Authority president.

Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for "dividing God's land." "God considers this land to be his," Robertson said on his TV program "The 700 Club." "You read the Bible and he says, `This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, `No, this is mine.'

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hovered between life and death Thursday, under heavy sedation and breathing with the aid of a respirator, as his doctors waited anxiously to assess the effects of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Doctors may attempt today to bring the 77-year-old leader out of a medically induced coma, into which he was placed following nearly eight hours of intensive and delicate neurosurgery. Or they may wait up to three days to do so.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke has left a gaping hole in the Bush administration's approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and stabilizing the broader Middle East. For much of President Bush's tenure, U.S. policy in the dispute has been shaped more by Sharon's ideas than any other factor. Sharon remained in grave condition Thursday at a hospital in Jerusalem, where he was placed in a medically induced coma after nearly eight hours of neurosurgery.

The stroke that left Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hospitalized has abruptly recast the nation's election campaign and raised questions about whether the mass of centrist voters he hoped to mobilize under a new party would hold together behind a replacement leader. The seriousness of Sharon's condition Thursday made it appear unlikely he could continue serving as prime minister and lead his new movement, Kadima, or Forward, in elections still scheduled for March 28.

ARIEL SHARON is fighting for his life. He's a man of potent primal urges, of violence, of combat, cunning and brilliant, a sharp manipulator, brave and corrupt. He has swung like a mighty pendulum between construction and destruction, and blatantly ignored limits, whether international boundaries or the boundaries of the law. Clearly, he has seen himself as a man destined to make history, not one who yields to circumstances.