PM late for meeting due to eye problem

Netanyahu arrives at cabinet meeting after doctor removes a small speck from his eye.

By HERB KEINON
netanyahu leaves stage speech 248.88 (photo credit: AP)
netanyahu leaves stage speech 248.88
(photo credit: AP)
Two days after he canceled a meeting with opposition leader Tzipi Livni because of swine flu fears, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu arrived late at the weekly cabinet meeting because of a "foreign object" in his eye. Eyebrows were raised early Sunday morning when the Prime Minister's Office put out a statement saying Netanyahu would miss the weekly cabinet meeting for "personal reasons," and that Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon would chair the session in his stead. Forty-five minutes after that announcement triggered wild speculation, the Prime Minister's Office followed up with another saying Netanyahu had woken with a small foreign object in his eye and gone to a clinic where an optometrist removed it and cleared him to attend the cabinet meeting and carry on with a regular work day. On Friday, Netanyahu canceled all appointments after a report that his military attaché Meir Kalifi - whom Netanyahu is in daily contact with - had been exposed to swine flu. Kalifi and his wife were both examined and found to be free of the virus.