Premier Menachem Begin remained at home today, for the sixth consecutive day, raising speculation that ill health has prevented him from presenting his formal letter of resignation to President Chaim Herzog.
The Army Radio observed today that despite denials, illness was the only reasonable explanation for the delay, now that the newly elected Likud leader, Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, has succeeded in obtaining the support of Likud’s coalition parties to form a new government.
Begin’s press aide, Uri Porat, firmly denied reports that Begin is seriously ill although Haaretz reported today that he was refusing to eat. Porat said it was not true that Begin has come down with the flu. But Mattityahu Shmuelevitz, Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, said yesterday flu was the cause of Begin’s indisposition.
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