Former President hospitalized

Former President Ezer Weizman was hospitalized in intensive care due to a case of pneumonia that has taken a turn for the worse in recent days.

Three weeks ago, Weizman, 81, came to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa with the flu, but doctors detected a severe lung infection, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported Sunday.

When Weizman first arrived at the hospital, his condition was listed as “satisfactory.”

After a few days in the intensive care unit, he successfully underwent foot surgery and was moved, but he was sent back to the intensive care unit and connected to a respirator due to breathing problems.

His condition was later downgraded to "poor" by Rambam Hospital Deputy Director Zvi Ben-Yishai.

Weizman served as president from 1993-2000 and is the nephew of Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president.

After leaving the military, Weizman entered politics and served in several ministerial posts, including transport, defense, communications and science.

In 1977, Weizman headed the election campaign that launched right-wing politician Menachem Begin of the Likud Party to power after the 29-year reign of rival Labor. On Dec. 20 of that year, Weizman made a secret trip to Egypt. That trip - and the friendship he formed with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat - served as a catalyst to the negotiations that culminated in the U.S.-sponsored Camp David agreements between Israel and Egypt in 1978.

After the first Palestinian uprising began in 1987, Weizman called for negotiations with the Palestine

Liberation Organization, then outlawed in Israel as a terrorist organization, and its leader, the late Yasser

Arafat.