FORGOTTEN but not gone, Israel’s iconic warrior-politician lies unconscious on the seventh floor of a hospital in the Judean foothills.

A month ago Ariel Sharon was the fulcrum of Israeli politics. He single-handedly transformed its landscape by breaking from the ruling right-wing Likud party to create the centrist Kadima (Forward) before next month’s elections.

When he suffered a massive stroke on January 4 a village of journalists encamped at Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital on the outskirts of Jerusalem, filling the courtyard as they reported every twitch of the stricken leader’s eyes and limbs.

But as Mr Sharon failed to wake the media drifted away, and now all are gone.

Although there is tight security within the intensive care unit, the only visible sign outside its doors is an armed policeman with a yarmulke sitting behind a screen, and a pair of tiny security cameras on the wall.

“It is unbelievable,” mused one official, sipping a soft drink in the canteen. “He was the Prime Minister. Nothing moved without going through him. Everything was connected to him and then,” he clicks his fingers, “he faded away.”

The Middle East, like the journalists, has also moved on. Mr Sharon would be shocked if, by some miracle, he woke now. The Islamic militant group Hamas has won the Palestinian parliamentary elections, tipping Israeli-Palestinian relations into uncharted waters. Iran has moved towards outright confrontation with the West over its drive to acquire nuclear technology.

“Israeli society has a remarkable ability to overcome loss,” said Daniel Ben-Simon, a commentator for the daily newspaper Haaretz. “Israelis mourned Sharon for one week. They said ‘thank you’ and vowed to cherish his legacy. Sharon left a will and that will is Kadima. People support it to show their respect for him.”

By general consensus Mr Sharon’s successor, Ehud Olmert, the acting Prime Minister, has struck the right note of pragmatic sorrow by preparing Kadima for the March 28 ballot shorn of its founder, but without unseemly haste. Kadima last week airbrushed Mr Sharon’s name off campaign posters outside its headquarters, replacing Forward Sharon with Forward Israel. But a giant poster of the former general still hangs from the roof.

Under Israeli law Mr Olmert cannot become prime minister until doctors declare that Mr Sharon cannot resume his duties, and they have yet to do that. “I get up every morning praying that Sharon will wake up and come back to us,” Mr Olmert said this week.

But most Israelis now accept that the chances of their 77-year-old Prime Minister recovering are slim. Mr Olmert has allowed this realisation to seep slowly into the Israeli consciousness after intially being pictured in the Cabinet room next to an empty chair.

He has begun putting his own stamp on policy, sending troops to evacuate an illegal outpost of settlers and talking of further pullouts from the West Bank. “It suits Olmert not to declare Sharon out of the game. It allows him to show sensitivity while benefiting from Sharon’s embrace,” said Yariv Ben Eliezer, a political analyst. “Gradually Olmert is proving that he can fill his shoes. Sharon’s condition also neutralises opponents. He has become a martyr whom they can’t touch.”

LEADERS LINGER

Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia, was initially admitted to a clinical centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in January 1980 with circulation problems, resulting in the amputation of his left leg. He died there in May, three days before his 88th birthday

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