Sharon’s Kadima party colleagues rally around interim leader Olmert

LEADERS of Ariel Sharon’s Kadima Party have said they would rally around interim leader Ehud Olmert, as a new poll showed Kadima would still sweep March elections.

Mr Sharon’s deputy, Ehud Olmert, has taken the reins as acting prime minister and is trying to convey a sense of stability.

Mr Sharon’s collapse less than three months before national elections left Kadima, which he formed in November, in limbo.

In the short term, Israelis appear to still be supporting Kadima. A poll published in the Yediot Ahronot daily yesterday found that an Olmert-headed Kadima would win 39 of 120 parliament seats, the most of any party and slightly less than the party polled under Mr Sharon.

The dovish Labour Party would get 20 seats, and the hard-line Likud, which Mr Sharon left to form Kadima, would capture 16 seats.

The poll had an error margin of 4.4%.

Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres would net 42 seats as head of Kadima, but some analysts said it was unlikely he would be chosen to lead the party. He met with Mr Olmert yesterday, but did not give details.

“We will know how to continue Israel’s policy ... to continue Ariel Sharon’s policies,” Mr Peres said.

Palestinians reacted to the fall of their longtime enemy with a mix of glee and apprehension. Some worried that Mr Sharon’s illness could derail their January 25 parliamentary elections.

Mr Sharon is remembered in the Arab world for Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, during which pro-Israeli Christian militia massacred hundreds of Palestinians in refugee camps near Beirut.

An inquiry into the massacre found Mr Sharon, who was defence minister at the time, indirectly but personally responsible and he was forced to resign.

But some believed Mr Sharon’s absence would take the Palestinian-Israeli conflict back to square one.

A university lecturer in Gaza, Mohammad Rezik Ahmed, said: “A successor may not even be capable of taking serious action regarding peace at all. Sharon was bad but not that bad.”

One who did express sympathy was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who telephoned Mr Sharon’s office to voice hopes for his recovery.

Some residents of Gaza, hit by Israeli air strikes following Palestinian suicide bombings or rocket launches against Israel, took a harder position.

Khamis Abu Al-Saa’di said: “I am praying for Sharon to live. I want him to live but paralysed so he can feel the pain he caused to thousands of Palestinians crippled by his army. It is not personal hatred, it is justice.”

Foreign leaders, who embraced Mr Sharon following his unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip last year, also expressed concern.

Yesterday Mr Olmert spoke with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Ms Rice cancelled a trip to Indonesia and Australia amid the uncertainty over Mr Sharon’s condition.