Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is threatening to sue his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, if he does not apologize for saying the Likud leader and his family suffer from mental illness.
A spokesman for the Netanyahu family confirmed Monday that the Netanyahus' attorney sent Olmert the letter of warning in advance of a possible defamation suit.
In an interview last week with Israeli news site Democrat TV, Olmert leveled criticism at Netanyahu and said that "what is irreparable is the mental illness of the prime minister, his wife and his son."
According to Channel 12 TV, a Netanyahu family attorney demanded that Olmert apologize within a week and pay 1 million shekels ($306,000) in damages or face a libel lawsuit.