Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu underwent surgery in the night to implant a pacemaker. The Sheba medical center of Tel ha-Shomer in Tel Aviv announces that after the operation the premier is in “good condition. Netanyahu will remain in the cardiology ward for the time being”. Netanyahu’s office had announced that during the operation he would assume the duties of premier, deputy prime minister, justice minister Yariv Levin. Last week he had already been hospitalized. The country is experiencing difficult days for the protests against the judicial reform. Even the prime minister at the end of the procedure said – in a short statement – that he “feels great”, also speaking of the judicial reform that he intends to carry out as soon as he leaves the hospital.
Meanwhile, a last-minute warning against the Knesset’s approval of the first phase of the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform (the so-called 0’limitation of the reasonableness clause of judges vis-à-vis the executive) came today from the former president of the Supreme Court, judge Aharon Barak. “If it is approved – he warned today – it will severely hit Israel’s core values as a Jewish and democratic state, will threaten to destabilize the rule of law, the regular management of public administration, the hygiene of the provisions of power and the fundamental rights of every person in Israel”. An appeal to the prime minister to immediately stop that legislation – which according to the coalition’s plans will be approved tomorrow in the second and third readings – also came today from the former head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, who for years was one of Benyamin Netanyahu’s most trusted and closest collaborators.
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