sharon's stroke

Ariel Sharon suffered a serious stroke and is undergoing emergency brain surgery, so Ehud Olmert is now the acting PM of Israel. Judging from the tone of the report, it sounds unlikely that he'll be able to return to active politics anytime soon, even if he survives and recovers. Israelis will elect a new Knesset in March. I'm not sure what this development will mean, but the prospects for Kadima (Sharon's new party, created largely at the expense of the more rightwing Likud) are dimmer, and I fear that the NYT is correct in saying that the one most likely to benefit in electoral terms will be Binyamin Netanyahu.