Israel and The Sin of Expulsion

Mazuz: If PM Doesn’t Recover, Cabinet Must Choose Successor

Excerpts;

“Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is currently defined as temporarily incapacitated, but should this definition change to permanently incapacitated, the cabinet will have to meet immediately to choose an acting premier.”

“Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said this during a special cabinet session called Thursday to discuss the legal implications of Sharon’s condition.”

“Mazuz explained that as long as Sharon is temporarily incapacitated, his appointed deputy, Ehud Olmert, will serve as acting premier. However, should Sharon be declared permanently incapacitated, then by law the cabinet must choose an acting premier from among the ministers who are also MKs and members of Sharon’s party.” read more

Olmert Demands Taxes on Donated Items for Israel’s Needy

Excerpts;

“Acting Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ehud Olmert demanded last month that taxes be paid on charity items recently donated by American Jews to help Israel’s needy population prepare for winter.”

“Olmert’s act raised a storm of angry criticism from Israeli and U.S. Jewish leaders, and has also created an unusually tense diplomatic climate sparking claims that trade treaties between Israel and America have been breached.” read more

Sharon Rushed to Operating Room as New Bleeding Detected

Excerpts;

“Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to the operating room at Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, on Friday, to undergo emergency surgery intended to relieve intra-cranial pressure. Outside experts said the prognosis was not good.”

“The increase in cranial pressure was discovered during a CT scan Sharon underwent in the morning. The brain scan also showed some bleeding in his brain, a slight expansion of one of his brain lobes and a rise in his blood pressure, said Hadassah director Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef.” read more

IDF Makes 13 Overnight Arrests in the West Bank

Bomb Thrown at Israeli Car in W. Bank; No Damage

IDF Fires Shells in Gaza Strip after Kassam Attack

IDF Continues to Target Northern Gaza Roads and Fields

The IDF’s Offensive Doctrine Is Nosediving

Excerpts;

“‘In case you didn’t know, the IDF’s strategic doctrine is still offensive. IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz said so just this week. And it’s good that he did, because up until now, the way the IDF has been annihilating the Kassam rocket strikes out of the Gaza Strip has been mainly with robust and aggressive verbal threats, occasionally punctuated by artillery rounds blasting empty sand dunes – or propaganda leaflets dropped by combat aircraft.‘” read more

Parsha Vayigash 5766: Why is Yehuda Yaakov’s Advance Man?
By Moshe Burt

There has been much talk across the internet and in some religious circles about Rav Kaduri’s recent predictions that the current government will be the last of the “old era” and that Sharon will be the last prime minister in Israel as reported by Arutz-7 back in September, 2005. And a google search on “Rabbi Kaduri, Moshiach and Israeli Government” netted some interesting finds including this one. read more

Hadassah Dir.-Gen. Insists That Blood-Thinning Treatment Was Correct

Excerpts;

“Dir.-Gen. of Hadassah-University Hospital, Ein Kerem, Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef in a Thursday evening press conference reasserted that the prime minister’s condition was still serious but stable since the afternoon. He noted that all of the parameters that were measured – blood pressure, pulse, urine production, inter-cranial pressure – were all within the standards expected for someone in the Sharon’s condition.” read more

Weekly Commentary: Post Sharon Era Elections – Program Over Personality

Full Text:

“Make no mistake about it: the overwhelming majority of Israelis oppose unilateral withdrawals (less than twenty percent supported more ‘unilateral disengagements’ in a poll conducted last month by Mina Tzemah for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs’s Defensible Borders Project).”

“But in a personality rather than policy-driven decision, many of the very same people who tell pollsters that they oppose the post-election retreats Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has in mind also say they would vote for a Sharon-led Kadima Party.” read more

Air Force Targeted Kassam Approach Roads

Soldiers Attacked With Rocks in Jenin

The following comments and analyses appeared on several news sites in wake of Arik Sharon’s massive stroke;

Comment: What now?

Excerpts;

“The question is whether Kadima has a future without Sharon. A significant number of politicians and public figures have joined the party, following Sharon. With him gone, internecine squabbling over the leadership could well break out. The prime minister’s responsibilities have been handed over to Finance Minister Ehud Olmert according to law, but few Kadima members will want one of the most unpopular politicians in the country to lead them into the elections.” read more

Barak of IRIS has compiled most comprehensive reporting and expert commentary in blogosphere on Sharon’s condition and the circumstances surrounding it. View these reports here and here.

Also, the Mere Rhetoric blog presents real-time updates regarding Sharon’s stroke, the circumstances behind it as well as political prognostications on the morning after.

Current Updates;

Second Operation Completed: Sharon Moved to Intensive Care; Vital Signs Stable

Excerpts;

“Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was transferred to neurological intensive care following a second operation that succeeded in halting cerebral bleeding on Thursday morning.” read more