Peres released from hospital after heart problems

Former president and prime minister Shimon Peres was released from a hospital Tuesday morning, five days after being admitted for a heart issue.

“I feel rejuvenated and I am ready to return to serving our wonderful country that I love so much,” he said. “I want to thank you all ,across the country, from the bottom of my heart for the concern and encouragement – I am moved by your love.”

The elder statesman, 92 years old and a towering figure in Israeli politics for decades, was hospitalized Thursday after experiencing chest pains.

On discovering that he had a narrowed artery, doctors performed cardiac catheterization and kept him in hospital for observation and tests.

On leaving Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, Peres issued a short statement, thanking the medical and nursing teams, and saying their treatment reminded him of the “spirit of the founder of Tel Hashomer, who said that everyone was equal and that you had to treat the patient not the illness – to treat the people themselves.”

The hospital was opened in 1948 by David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, and its first director was Haim Sheba, a leading physician in the early state.

Peres said he had been deeply moved by the flood of words and telephone calls from all around the country.

Referring to the murder of Otniel mother Dafna Meir on Sunday evening and the stabbing of Tekoa resident Michal Froman on Monday, the president said: “I want to embrace the wonderful children of the late Dafna Meir of blessed memory – an amazing woman – and to send my best wishes for recovery to Michal Froman and her family.”

Before the cardiac event, Peres, a known workaholic, had been planning to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, due to begin Wednesday, where he had scheduled 15 meetings with world leaders and international officials.

But Dr. Victor Guetta, who performed the successful artery-widening procedure on the President, said last week: “Technically he could fly to Davos… (but) that would not normally be our recommendation… I imagine that he will be persuaded not to do it.”

A co-architect of the 1993 Oslo peace accords, Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with premier Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated the following year, and then-Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat.

One of the last of Israel’s founding fathers, Peres has held nearly every major office in the country, including prime minister twice and president from 2007-2014.