The news that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had suffered a stroke with serious bleeding in the brain traveled around the world like a shockwave on Thursday. With the doctors of the man known as "The Bulldozer" fighting to save the 77-year-old's life on Friday, there appeared to be very little chance that Sharon would resume power, even if he survives. His absence will leave a vacuum in the Israeli political scene, and casts considerable uncertainty over an election planned for this spring. However, with Sharon never particularly well liked in Europe, many German commentators were more concerned with the potential impact on the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. All of Germany's major newspapers had editorials on the subject, and the general tone was not optimistic for the troubled Middle East.

Munich's center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes that Sharon's unexpected departure has created a massive potential for instability. "After Sharon's stroke, uncertainty will dominate politics in the coming months," comments the paper. "Sharon, also a controversial figure in Israel, stood for a clear political line: he was a pragmatic realist to the point of being unscrupulous." Although Sharon followed "reprehensible policies" that violated human rights by unilaterally building a wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories, the paper concedes that at least his politics made him predictable. Now a long-time Sharon rival, the "hotheaded (Benjamin) Netanyahu, will become a real alternative" for Israeli voters. "The unknown outcome of the struggle for power in Israel will likely be accompanied by unrest in the Palestinian areas."

The left-wing Berliner Zeitung uses the occasion to attack the apparent lack of engagement in the Middle East by US President George Bush. The paper believes Sharon was one of the last remaining crutches for Washington's policies in the region. If Israelis now back Netanyahu, the world will learn what fear really is, prophesizes the paper. The entire region could be consumed by conflict if Israel decides (for example) to make a preventative strike on Iran's suspected nuclear weapons facilities. Such an assault might find support from the Bush administration, which according to the paper favors limited military action against so-called rogue states. "But it would be a game that could quickly get out of hand with the extremist Netanyahu in Jerusalem and the extremist (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad in Tehran," worry the editors.

The right-wing daily Die Welt challenges European dislike for Sharon, who over his career often chose confrontation over reconciliation with Israel's numerous foes. "Despite his successes with the peace process, Sharon has remained an unloved figured in wide circles throughout Europe and Germany," writes the paper. "One who has perhaps become milder in his old age, but one who is still a warmonger and a fighter, standing against all the values that Europeans so like to congratulate themselves about." Pointing out an old poll that showed most EU citizens judging Sharon to be more of a danger to world peace than the leader of North Korea, Die Welt opines that most people in the European Union have failed to understand Israel's precarious situation. European-style conflict resolution is impossible in the Middle East, write the editors: "It's admirable when exponents of European values promote their personal moral standards. Unfortunately, realists like Sharon can never allow themselves to be moved by such well-meaning advice."