A smiling Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was released from the hospital yesterday, saying he was in a hurry and fit enough to get back to work after suffering a mild stroke two days earlier.
Sharon returned to the fray just hours after his bitter rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, won the race to replace him as head of the battered Likud Party. Sharon quit the hardline Likud last month because it resisted his plan to move forward on a peace deal with the Palestinians.
Sharon's illness raised questions about his ability to lead his new party, Kadima, into March elections, and then lead the country if elected to a third term. Yesterday, the prime minister shrugged off those concerns.
"Now I have to rush back to work," he told reporters as he left Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital. Asked if the stroke affected his performance, Sharon replied, "I don't think it will affect my functioning."
Sharon was rushed to Hadassah on Sunday evening and had not been seen or heard publicly since he was hospitalized. Doctors at Hadassah said the stroke briefly affected his speech, but didn't impair his memory or cognitive abilities, or leave permanent damage.
strong position
New polls yesterday showed Sharon -- Israel's most popular politician -- gaining ground after his stroke, with Likud still languishing. If poll trends hold, Kadima would be able to form a moderate coalition following the March balloting, and a Netanyahu-led Likud would head a right-wing opposition.
Sharon's exit from the Likud left behind a small group of lawmakers, like Netanyahu, who opposed his Gaza Strip withdrawal, and object to further territorial concessions to the Palestinians.
Netanyahu, a former prime minister, captured 44 percent of the vote in Monday's Likud primary, as against 33 percent for Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Two hardline candidates divided the remaining votes.
Netanyahu, who quit Sharon's Cabinet in protest just before the Gaza pullout, told cheering backers that his victory was the beginning of "returning the Likud to power."
"The country is facing difficult challenges, and I don't think it's headed in the right direction," Netanyahu said in a crowded room in party headquarters. "First of all, we must bring the Likud back to itself and then to the leadership of the country. It begins now, up, up and up."
Bethlehem incident
Meanwhile, Palestinian gunmen briefly seized Bethlehem city hall, overlooking the Church of the Nativity, yesterday in a jarring interruption to Christmas preparations in the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
The incident, five days before Christmas, was another sign of growing lawlessness in Palestinian territories and the turmoil within Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction ahead of next month's election.
About 20 gunmen from Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades fanned out on rooftops and in the offices of city hall, firing several shots in the air and forcing workers out. They demanded money and jobs for about 320 members.
Masked gunmen carrying assault rifles appeared beside the glittering star set up on the roof ahead of festivities.
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