Netanyahu urges docs to delay resignations

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu urged doctors Monday to delay their resignations from public hospitals by two weeks. Haaretz reported 279 doctors did not show up for work at hospitals, and doctors' representatives threatened mass resignations in a dispute over working conditions. Netanyahu "asked the residents for a two-week delay and he expects them to show responsibility," the prime minister's office said in a statement. Representatives of the government and doctors were expected to meet Monday at the National Labor Court, where the government likely would seek an injunction against resignations, The Jerusalem Post reported. Doctors complain of unfair conditions in the Israel Medical Association's nine-year labor agreement with employers, signed in August. Dr. Oren Feldman, a representative of the doctors, called on the prime minister to step in. "I urge Netanyahu, please intervene and solve the crisis," said Feldman, a resident at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. "As long as there is no substantial offer, there is no point in renegotiating... . As for me, from the moment I resign, I do not intend to look back."