Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left a Jerusalem hospital against his doctor's orders to help his party pass a divisive budget law.
This comes just two days after Netanyahu underwent surgery to remove his prostate. The prime minister returned to continue his recovery hours later, having avoided the parliamentary crisis.
According to CNN, Netanyahu spent the day in the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) to push a controversial bill aimed at regulating how companies in Israel distribute dividends and pay taxes.
Nentayu's presence was described as decisive as the bill was approved by one vote after some right-wing parties in the Prime Minister's government attempted to block it over disagreements with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The issue highlights divisions within the government.
Among the members of parliament who stopped the bill (which involves funding for the police) over a disagreement with Smotrich, a former ally, was Israel's Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, who also heads the far-right party. right Otzma Yehudit.
As Ben Gvir argues, tax reform diverts money from raises for police officers, while Netanyahu and Smotrich argue that the police have already received large raises in the past two years.
However, Netanyahu, for his part, said he hopes Ben Gvir “will stop shaking the coalition and endangering the existence of the right-wing government at a crucial moment in Israel's history.”
Ben Gvir and Smotrich traded blame over the need for Netanyahu to leave the hospital for the vote.
Smotrich said Ben Gvir's firm stance chose to “hurt the prime minister and get him out of his sick bed.”
But Ben Gvir noted that the Prime Minister might have had no reason to leave his hospital bed for the vote if Smotrich had agreed to negotiate.
“It pained me greatly to see Finance Minister Smotrich drag the Prime Minister whom we all love out of his sickbed, simply because of his ego and his refusal to negotiate with me, despite the pleas of the Prime Minister's associates,” he said. Ben. Gvir told the Knesset.
As Netanyahu left his recovery bed, a spokesperson for Hadassah Medical Center told CNN that the prime minister decided to leave the hospital “contrary to the medical opinion of the staff.”
On Saturday, Netanyahu's office said that an examination on Wednesday had discovered a urinary tract infection due to a benign enlargement of the prostate, and that the prime minister's infection had been treated with antibiotics.
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