US Television evangelist Pat Robertson has suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
"He was dividing God's land," Robertson told TV viewers, "and I would say, "Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America.
"God says, 'This land belongs to me, and you'd better leave it alone'," he said.
Sharon withdrew Israeli settlers and troops from Gaza and parts of the West Bank last summer over heated objections from his own Likud Party. Sharon, 77, is fighting for his life in a Jerusalem hospital after suffering a severe stroke.
Robertson, 75, last stirred controversy in August when he called for the assassination of Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez.
Robertson suggests Sharon smote by God
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