Ariel Sharon: Former Israeli Prime Minister Near Death After Deterioration In His Condition [Video]

Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli Prime Minister who has been in a vegetative state since 2006, is circling the drain, with his doctors claiming it will be a miracle if he survives the weekend. Hebrew media is reporting that his doctors are saying that Sharon is suffering from renal failure which leads to multiple organ failure and eventually death.

A senior doctor at Sheba Hospital told Walla News in a statement:

“The situation now depends mainly on the family and the decisions they make”.

Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke in 2006 and was given blood thinners to help him recover. A few weeks later he suffered a massive bleed in his brain leaving him comatose and in a vegetative state. There was a point a few years ago where doctors said he was stable enough to be moved to his family home but shortly after needed a feeding tube reinserted and to be brought back to Tel HaShomer Hospital in Tel Aviv, where he has lived until this day.

Doctors have said that due to his advanced age they are unlikely to take any extreme actions to keep him alive.

Sharon has been was of Israel’s most prominent figures for the entire history of the modern state. He fought for the paratroopers in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. He was a general in the 1967 Six Day War which saw Israel capture the Sinai from Egypt, The Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank from Jordan.

Sharon was also one of the most vocal supporters of Israel’s settlement enterprise. He personally oversaw the building of hundreds of Israeli towns in captured lands. He was well know for saying that he saw no difference between Gaza and Tel Aviv. This statement came back to haunt him when, as Israel’s Prime Minister in 2005, he instituted a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and several isolated settlements in the upper West Bank.

Ariel Sharon was first elected Prime Minister in 2001 and served as such until 2006 when he became comatose. He was originally elected as head of Israel’s hard line Likud Party but left to form his own centrist party called Kadima when he realized the majority of his party was against the Gaza withdrawal.

Israel’s political leaders will be standing in the shadow of Ariel Sharon for many years.