Doctor: Sharon fit to function as PM
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was hospitalized yesterday after suffering a minor stroke, but did not suffer any damage and is able to continue functioning as the country's leader, Ein Kerem Hospital Deputy Director, Yair Birenbaum says, YNET reported. "Sharon is undergoing a series of tests. He looks well and we hope to release him tomorrow. The prime minister never lost consciousness and the stroke caused him no damage, Neurology Department Director said, adding that Sharon was competent to perform his activities as prime minister. According to the doctors, Sharon had suffered a mild stroke when a small blood clot briefly blocked the blood vessels feeding his brain. He had trouble speaking temporarily, but suffered no permanent damage. "The problem was very small, not neurological or cognitive problems. (It) was limited to speech," doctor said. He treated Sharon after he was admitted Sunday night. "He is now getting blood thinners. There are excellent chances for recovery. We want him to rest, and that is one of the reasons that he is staying until tomorrow, once he is released, he won't get any rest." Doctors also recommended that Sharon, who is extremely overweight, go on a diet. He is to return to the hospital in several weeks for more tests.
Earlier, Sharon told his aides he does not understand why he must undergo the long series of tests. Despite his good spirits, the doctors were finding it difficult to deal with his repeated request to return home to his ranch.
A statement issued by the hospital Monday morning said that "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rested throughout the night. His situation continues to be good." An MRI test did not find anything unusual, and the prime minister was transferred to an internal hospital ward, where he met with his sons and associates and told Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon, "We're moving forward." Sharon's associates added that he had showered by himself, was no longer connected to monitoring machines and had taken a stroll independently in the hospital ward. The prime minister's two sons, Gilad and Omri, and his daughter-in-law Michal were constantly by his side. Sources close to Sharon said he was "alert and attentive to his surrounding," and that he was awaiting a series of neurological and other tests. The sources also denied that any facial visual symptom was caused by the stroke. World leaders continued to inquire as to the prime minister's health.
Turnout low in Likud primaries
With just six hours until ballots closed for the Likud primaries at 10 p.m. today, the voter turnout stood at 15 percent, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. All four contenders in the party's leadership race, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz and Moshe Feiglin, had already cast their ballots and afterwards mingled with Likud voters and supporters at the polling stations. Shalom and Netanyahu visited supporters at the Jerusalem International Convention Center polling station, which was decked out in 50-foot-high posters of the two leading candidates, bearing the slogans "Jerusalem united with Netanyahu" and "Silvan Shalom will return the nation to Likud." Shalom was greeted in the capital by supporters calling him next prime minister and singing "Hevenu Shalom Aleichem."
At the tent where his jingle was playing loudly, Shalom vowed that he would "go from town to town, from mayor to mayor, from activist to activist, starting tomorrow, to make sure the Likud will be united." Shalom added, "This is a big day for me, for the Likud, and for the people of Israel. The Likud will decide whether it will be a small party or a large party. We will bring a new dawn." Shalom was heckled by Gush Katif evacuees, who shouted, "Traitor, we will never forgive you, you voted to expel us from our homes." Netanyahu and his wife Sarah were engulfed by enthused supporters when they arrived at the convention center to cast their ballots. "The Likud is not going in the right direction," Netanyahu told the crowd. "We have to stop the security threat. That's what I'll do as [Likud]leader," he promised. After voting in the polling station in Karnei Shomron, Feiglin expressed optimism about the results of the vote.
Netanyahu began the day with a visit to the Western Wall, where he was heckled by someone who shouted "You have ruined the lives of the Jews!" Netanyahu said a short prayer for Sharon's well being. When asked about Sharon, Netanyahu answered that what was important was the health of the State of Israel, declaring that "The health of the state [was] not well."
The most recent batch of polls indicated a very close race between Netanyahu and Shalom, with Netanyahu hanging onto a small lead, although each of the candidates was expected to capture some 40 percent of the vote, which is the minimum amount required to elect a chairman without going to a runoff election. As the gap between the two in the polls has narrowed over the past few weeks, exchanges between Netanyahu and Shalom have heated up.
A Qassam rocket landed in Ashkelon
A Qassam rocket landed yesterday in the industrial zone located south of Ashkelon, HAARETZ reported. There were no casualties or damage, but there is growing concern about the vulnerability of strategic sites in the area. At noon yesterday the Red Dawn early-warning system identified a Qassam launch. According to the Israel Defense Forces, the rocket was launched from the area of the razed settlement of Dugit in the northern Gaza Strip. It landed near a factory in Ashkelon's southern industrial zone. Police sappers removed the remains of the rocket.
The IDF recently installed the Red Dawn system in the industrial zone and southern neighborhoods of Ashkelon. However, the system will only begin to operate fully in two or three weeks, a delay that mystifies Ashkelon's mayor, Roni Mehatzri: "I don't understand why they have to wait and aren't doing this now," he said. "I was assured that the response will be such that this will not continue," Mehatzri said. "There is no doubt that the Qassams have begun to bother residents." Mehatzri is certain the army can prevent the rockets from landing in Ashkelon: "The IDF could provide a better response to these threats if it operated near the border - [near] the areas where the Qassams are launched. If the army were operating there, the Qassams wouldn't be reaching Ashkelon. I'm not panicking, but I am certainly worried about the situation. You can't remain indifferent."
Arrivals: From North Carolina to Beersheba
Trey Clark, a first-year medical student in the Columbia Program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, has packed a lot of adventure into his 24 years: He mastered sailing, went on environmental explorations in the Bahamas, studied in Tokyo and taught English in Nepal, to name just a few. Then on July 13, 2005, he made aliya.
What was a nice Jewish boy doing in North Carolina, in a town so small there wasn't any organized Jewish community at all? "My mother's family is from New York," he says. "She was born in the Bronx, from parents who'd fled Central Europe before the War. My father - of English/Scottish extraction - is an English teacher, a librarian and a musician, playing trombone in the Salisbury Symphony. He found work in Salisbury. "Growing up, graduating high school in Salisbury, I had no particular connection with my Jewish ancestry," he says. "We celebrated holidays, that was about it. When I got to college, though, I became much more aware. It wasn't that I began identifying myself as a Jew, it was that others did it for me. So I decided I'd better learn what being a Jew was all about."
His exploration culminated in a March of the Living/birthright israel trip in 2002. "For me, the trip was earth-shaking, a life-changing event," he says of the tour that took about 50 young people through the devastation of Jewish Poland, then on to the Jewish state. "There was a kind of magic on that trip, something that happened among the whole group of us, leaders and students. It's hard to explain, but for all of us, it was momentous. "Of course, it didn't hurt that I met the girl of my dreams on that trip," he says, referring to his fiancee, Chagit Edery, who was born a sabra but is living with her parents in Brooklyn.
Before aliya
"I came home from the trip, and my life had changed. Now my objective was to study medicine, become a doctor, and live in Israel. Then another miracle happened, and I found BGU's Columbia Program, which permits me to study medicine, in English, in Israel. It's another dream come true - now I can become the kind of doctor I want to be, live in Israel, and be with my wife, after we marry." But things didn't happen instantly. "I spent two years living in Brooklyn, working as an EMT, emergency medical technician. I lived in Mrs. Weiss's basement apartment - she's a Holocaust survivor - and worked in the medical field, all the while being close to Chagit and her family. Those years proved my initial decisions were right. "After I was accepted by Nefesh B'Nefesh, I started wrapping things up in Brooklyn and Salisbury. I made the good-bye trip, seeing people I cared about. My family has been wonderful, my mother, father and younger brother Benjamin. They've been completely supportive - not just understanding, but actively supportive. "I didn't send a lift, and I didn't have much to get rid of - I was really just a college kid. I gave some things away, stored a few items with Chagit's family, and made aliya with just a backpack. It was a big backpack, I admit. But I knew I could get whatever I needed in Israel."
Upon arrival
"We were met by Ariel Sharon," Clark says, laughing. "It was NBN's biggest aliya day - two planes of new immigrants, one from New York, one from Canada. There was a huge 'welcome home' celebration with speeches, music and a lot of happy people. I can't say enough good things about NBN. They've really made me feel that I've come home - and they're still there, offering help with anything I need. "I came directly to Beersheba, straight into another warm, welcoming community. The Anglo community here reaches out to the students in the Columbia Program, to help us feel at home. I feel like I've been adopted - I haven't spent a Shabbat alone yet."
Circle
"My life here is full of people - my classmates, for starters. We're a big class, and most of us are very close. My roommate is from Indiana, in the Program, too. Chagit also has family here, and they've been very helpful. I have my own family, too - cousin Jonathan is in ulpan. My friend Ira - he was on the birthright trip, too - is also here, studying in yeshiva. Then there's the whole Anglo community of Beersheba. Life is great."
Military
"I have a military obligation, and my one hope is that I'll be able to contribute something useful. I'm hoping I can defer my service until after I have my medical degree, so I can offer something of value to the army.
Identification
"I'm many things: I'm an American. I'm an Israeli. I live in Israel. I'm just a kid in medical school."
Language
"I started learning Hebrew from Chagit and her family in Brooklyn. Here, we had an ulpan, and now we study Hebrew four hours a week. My classes are in English, and I associate mostly with English speakers, so it's going to take me a while to become fluent. But I'm getting better."
Plans
First, a wedding in Israel. "Chagit is still in Brooklyn, finishing her degree in Speech Pathology, but she's coming in January, and we'll make wedding plans, probably for next fall. It's important to have the wedding here - my grandparents planned a trip for their 50th wedding anniversary, but my grandfather became ill, so they didn't come. Now I want my grandmother here, at my wedding. "Along my journey, I've gained both love and appreciation for my history and my culture. What better way is there to pass that along to my future children, than by living every day in Israel?"
[Today's Israel Line was prepared by Hili Sharon at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.]