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Thank you. service by becoming a member at WNYC.org. From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who suffered a debilitating stroke Wednesday,

has played a critical and constantly evolving role in modern Middle East history.

With his illness, the future of his brand new

party, Kadima, and the peace process itself are left in flux. Also unclear is his legacy. For the first

rough draft of history, we turn once again to Susan Kasky, international editor of the week

magazine, with a review of press reaction around the world.

Welcome back.

It's good to be here.

Susan, as of early this week, the newspapers were writing about Sharon, but it wasn't about his health.

It was about the corruption scandal swirling around his administration.

That's right.

In fact, the corruption scandal, which involves not only

Sharon, but other members of his family, had been the main topic of Israeli editorial pages

early in the week. In fact, his eldest son, Omri Sharon, resigned from the Knesset on Tuesday.

...