“Both Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid did, in the brief periods that each served as prime minister, during the Government of Change, 2021-2022.”

“On July 15, 2023, less than three months before Hamas’s October 7 invasion of Israel and mega-atrocities, Netanyahu was briefly hospitalized, allegedly after staying in the sun without wearing a hat (according to the prime minister himself, who proceeded to lecture the public about the importance of wearing a hat when outside).”

“A week later, it transpired that he was in fact suffering from disturbances in his heartbeat, not (or not only) from dehydration, and that he underwent a pacemaker implantation.”

“The problem of getting political leaders to report their health condition regularly is not unique to Israel, nor to the US, where there is frequent discussion of the need to require legislators, governors, and presidents to make their health records public.”

“A paper published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine during the 2020 US presidential elections (“When disease strikes leaders: What should we know,” by Dr. Salvatore Mangione) mentioned three great US presidents who kept their poor health secret from the public, putting them in embarrassing political or diplomatic situations toward the end of their political careers.”

“They were: Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, whose stroke in October 1919 started “the most serious case of presidential disability and White House coverup” in American history.”

“Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the US, managed to serve successfully for three terms despite severe physical disabilities caused by polio.”

“He passed away two months after the 1945 Yalta Conference, which took place not long before Europe was completely reconquered by the Allies at the end of World War II.”

“At the conference, Roosevelt met with Churchill and Stalin, but was in what was described as such “terrible health” that it was felt that “he didn’t have the strength to be quite as stubborn as he liked to be,” especially vis-à-vis Stalin.”

“John F. Kennedy, the 35th president, was described as “the sickest person ever elected to the White House.””

“He was believed to have been “strong-armed by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev” at the 1961 Vienna summit, at least partially because of his physical weakness, caused by his various ailments.”

“The nature of Kennedy’s chronic health ailments, including Addison’s disease (an adrenal insufficiency) and debilitating chronic back pain was only revealed to the public years after his assassination in 1963, in the early 1970s.”