Is it just me?

Perhaps it is just me, but does anyone else have the strong suspicion that Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, might already be dead?

It's not that I'm wishing that on him, or anyone else for that matter, but have you noticed that in many of the news reports, people are talking about him as if he had already passed away? And then, every once in a while, the interviewees or the news announcers catch themselves and hurriedly add something along the lines of "if indeed Mr Sharon does not recover from this stroke, and I hope that he does."

So far on CNN and BBC I've seen speculation about what happens poltically in Israel "now that Sharon is gone", and discussion of "Sharon's legacy." I even saw one interviewee asked to sum up how he would remember Ariel Sharon. It's those sorts of things which have made me think that Ariel Sharon might well already be dead.

Also, when you think about it, the official description of the state of his health, namely "in a very severe but stable condition", could also apply equally well to a dead person, could it not? What, after all, is more stable than death?

For what it's worth, I personally reckon that Ariel Sharon has already died and that the Israeli authorities are trying to prevent this news from coming out until they have clarified a few things, and sorted out what happens next. Furthermore, I reckon that the news agencies know this, but are playing along for now. I could be completely wrong, of course. It's happened before.

If I'm right, isn't there an intriguing parallel to the death of Yassir Arafat last year? Odd.

Tags:
Ariel Sharon
Middle East