Israel’s Netanyahu suffers from dehydration after vacation in heatwave – Portal

  • 73-year-old PM felt dizzy after vacation at sea
  • Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving leader
  • Sunday’s cabinet meeting has been postponed
  • “I’m doing really well,” he says from the hospital

JERUSALEM, July 15 (Portal) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hospitalized with apparent dehydration on Saturday after a seaside holiday during a heatwave, delaying the weekly cabinet meeting despite declaring himself healthy.

Netanyahu’s office said the 73-year-old had been taken to Sheba Hospital near his home after suffering from dizziness and would stay there overnight.

In video from the hospital, a smiling Netanyahu said he vacationed by the Sea of ​​Galilee on Friday in temperatures as high as 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit).

“Thank God I’m doing really well,” he said.

“I’m asking you all, spend less time in the sun, drink more water and let’s all have a happy new week.”

Israel’s longest-serving leader is in the midst of a domestic crisis, protesting his religious-nationalist coalition’s push for judicial reform before parliament dissolves for the summer on July 30.

This turmoil has added to strains in relations with the United States, as has rising Israeli-Palestinian violence and advances in Iran’s nuclear program.

Netanyahu’s office said the cabinet meeting scheduled for Sunday would take place on Monday instead.

“Slight dizziness”

Israeli media said he was fully conscious on the way to Sheba and went to the emergency room. No procedures have been initiated to declare him unfit for work or to determine who could replace him, the reports said.

When then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke in 2006, his deputy Ehud Olmert succeeded him. Justice Minister Yariv Levin represented Netanyahu on trips abroad.

Netanyahu’s office said he was admitted on his doctor’s recommendation after complaining of “slight dizziness”.

“The preliminary diagnosis is dehydration,” it said, adding that further routine tests are underway.

Netanyahu, first elected to the top office in 1996, has been both dynamic and divisive. He led a free-market revolution in Israel while showing distrust of internationally supported peace policies with the Palestinians and world power negotiations to limit Iran’s nuclear program.

As hundreds of military reservists threatened to disobey draft orders in protest at government reforms, Israeli Channel 13 on Wednesday aired an audio recording of Netanyahu shouting at a cabinet meeting that such insubordination was “unimaginable.”

Critics fear the judicial reform plan is aimed at curtailing the independence of Netanyahu’s court, which is on trial over corruption charges he denies. He says the reforms would balance the branches of government.

“I wish the Prime Minister a full recovery and good health,” tweeted Yair Lapid, the centrist opposition leader.

In Washington, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council said: “We wish him a speedy recovery.”

In early October, Netanyahu fell ill with Yom Kippur during the Jewish fast and also had to be hospitalized for a short time.

Additional reporting by Paul Grant; writing by Dan Williams; Edited by Andrew Cawthorne and Frances Kerry

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