News that Prime Minister Sharon suffered a stroke Sunday had the telephone lines between New York and Israel buzzing, as the thousands of friends the prime minister has made here over the years began calling up to find out how the man they have come to love, even when they sometimes don’t agree with him, is doing. And for the most part, the news was decidedly encouraging. The stroke Mr. Sharon suffered was said to be mild, the prognosis excellent. One mutual friend likened it to any one of a number of hurdles past which Mr. Sharon has had to get in his long career.

The news, nonetheless, comes as Mr. Sharon is about to attempt to bring to power his new Kadima coalition. It underlines the importance of the democratic element to Israel’s political structure. What is at stake is not the vision of one man but of a country governed by laws, a parliament, political parities, and a democratic system.

We will never forget the breadth of the spectrum that rallied around Mr. Sharon when his wife, Lili, died of cancer. We have no doubt that, for all the divisions over the retreat from Gaza and the proposed retreat from the West Bank, that this warmth will be felt by the prime minister again, and not just in the Israeli capital at Jerusalem, but here in New York where he has touched so many.