Israel returns to politics as Sharon remains critical

Israel returned to politics today while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was improving, but still comatose in a hospital a week after a massive stroke.

His allies were jockeying for position and his main rival ordered his party’s ministers to quit the Cabinet.

Sharon’s condition early today was unchanged – critical but stable, according to a statement from Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where he is being treated. It said his hearty rhythm was regular, and he would undergo a routine CT scan later in the day.

Likud Central Committee members were to choose a list of candidates today for March 28 elections, with polls showing the party losing more than half its strength from last time – when Sharon was the leader. The same polls show Sharon’s new party, Kadima, maintaining a huge lead despite, or perhaps because of, his illness.

Sharon’s successor as Likud leader, ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered his party’s Cabinet ministers to quit today. But Israeli media reported that the four ministers would ignore the order, plunging the hard-line movement, already reeling from Sharon’s defection, into further disarray.

Uncertainty over Sharon’s condition clouded Kadima campaign plans. Doctors said it would be days, perhaps weeks, before a full picture of the damage from Sharon’s stroke would be clear. He showed slight progress yesterday, but his doctors warned that neurological cases were slow to develop, measuring progress in weeks and months.

Sharon’s closest ally, Ehud Olmert, has taken over as acting prime minister, but if Sharon is ruled permanently incapacitated, the Cabinet would have to pick a replacement until the election – probably Olmert.

Since Sharon’s stroke, Olmert has worked to project an air of stability, holding Cabinet meetings and assuring the country that the government is continuing to function. He spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov yesterday and gave him an update on Sharon’s condition.

Olmert had previously been seen as an unlikely candidate for prime minister, but his calm stewardship of the crisis has turned him into the clear front-runner in the election.

A poll for Channel 10 TV and the Haaretz daily newspaper projected that an Olmert-headed Kadima would win 44 of 120 seats, virtually assuring it would lead the next government. Likud and the dovish Labour trailed with about 15 seats each. Pollsters questioned 640 voters but did not give a margin of error.

Another party, the secular Shinui, scheduled primary elections for today, facing decimation according to polls. After winning 15 seats in the last election, party leaders admit most of their backers have switched to Kadima.

Kadima politicians cautioned against reading too much into the poll. “We know about the limitations of these polls,” Kadima politician Haim Ramon told Israel TV. “This just says that it depends on what we do. This week we acted well.” Experts said the results might reflect sympathy for Sharon’s plight and might not hold.

Sharon formed the party late last year, bolting from Likud after many of its politicians tried to torpedo his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Though many experienced politicians joined the centrist Kadima, it was largely seen as a one-man show. Sharon had not yet drawn up the party’s election list – a difficult and often divisive process – when he suffered his stroke.

Yesterday, some Kadima officials discussed running Sharon symbolically in the top position on the list, but making Olmert their candidate for prime minister.

“Let’s say that (Sharon) has serious physical limitations, but in all other capacities he functions. There is no one better than him for the first place,” Ramon said.

Tourism Minister Abraham Hirchson, also of Kadima, said the party should wait to see Sharon’s condition before making a decision.

Opposition politicians criticised the idea.

“I don’t think that at the moment Sharon should be seen as some kind of electoral asset to be used by Kadima or anyone else,” Likud politician Yuval Steinitz told Israel TV, dismissing the idea as “inappropriate.”

Other politicians appeared to accept that Olmert would take Sharon’s place as leader of the party.

“I’m waiting for Ehud Olmert to come out and say what exactly the Sharon tradition means to him,” Labour member Yuli Tamir said. “Then we can have a proper political debate.”

Sharon’s doctors yesterday said his condition had improved slightly, and they were trying to wean him off the sedatives that kept him in an induced coma.

Dr. Yoram Weiss, one of Sharon’s doctors, told Israel’s Channel 2 TV that after the sedatives were stopped, it would take several days to determine the extent of his brain damage.

“We’re talking about a long, slow and drawn-out process and we hope that it will always develop positively. It’s very hard to say what the pace will be,” he said.

One of his neurosurgeons, Jose Cohen, said most patients opened their eyes within three weeks after sedation and the sooner this happened, the better. However, Sharon was certain to have sustained some cognitive damage, he said.

“There will be changes, but what changes, nobody knows,” Cohen told Israel TV.