PM to return to work tonight as stomach virus eases

Following doctor's orders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took another day of sick leave yesterday and will return to his duties tonight.

Medical examinations revealed that Netanyahu had been suffering from a stomach virus. The virus initially caused him to run a fever, which subsided yesterday.

Although the prime minister felt better in the morning, his personal physician, Dr. Zvi Herman Berkovich, recommended that he rest one more day before returning to work.

A statement from the Prime Minister's Office said Netanyahu would return to his official duties at 6 P.M. tonight and take part in the opening ceremony at a convention organized by Calcalist, the business supplement of the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

Netanyahu spent most of the day at home in bed receiving updates from his advisers. The prime minister also telephoned German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with whom he had been scheduled to meet yesterday for bilateral talks in Berlin. The summit is likely to be rescheduled for January 18, which fits both leaders' schedules.

Berkovich has been the Netanyahu family's physician for 15 years. The Prime Minister's Office said the doctor, a pediatrician by training, is well familiar with the medical histories of Netanyahu and his family. The prime minister is constantly escorted by a physician or paramedic in the entourage provided by the Shin Bet security service.

Netanyahu's illness also resulted in the cancellation of a meeting scheduled for today with a number of regional council heads of West Bank settlements. The meeting will now be held next week.

While confined to bed, however, Netanyahu was forced to deal with one of the first domestic crises since he announced a 10-month settlement freeze on West Bank construction. Residents of the settlement Keidar contacted Netanyahu bureau chief Natan Eshel to tell him that the Civil Administration had ordered them to halt the construction of 25 new housing units in the settlement.

The homes had been authorized as part of the 490 units whose construction had been approved before the freeze was announced, and were therefore exempt from the order.

Netanyahu updated Defense Minister Ehud Barak on his conversation with the Keidar residents, and a decision was reached to allow construction of the housing units to continue.