Israeli interior minister's wife tweets racist joke about Obama

Israeli interior minister’s wife tweets racist joke about Obama, causing furor
Judy Nir Mozes Shalom quickly deleted her tweet comparing U.S. president to ‘weak black coffee,’ but not before raising a flurry of Twitter derision.
By Haaretz | Jun. 21, 2015 | 7:56 PM | 12

The wife of Israel’s Interior Minister Silvan Shalom raised a Twitter uproar on Sunday, after tweeting the following “joke”:

“Do u know what Obama Coffee is? Black and weak,” wrote Judy Nir Mozes Shalom, a local media personality whose husband, among his other duties, is tasked with overseeing the strategic dialogue with the United States.

Shalom quickly deleted the post, but not before it raised a flurry of responses, many of which accusing her of racism. One Twitter user said: “@JudyMozes – appalled you would tweet something so racist about the President.” Another was more concerned about the impact Shalom’s tweet would cause: “@JudyMozes you need to apologize for this asap. You are seriously doing grievous damage to Israel’s friends abroad.”

Indeed, shortly after the initial tweet Shalom tweeted an apology: “I apologize, that was a stupid joke somebody told me.”

To which one Twitter user responded: “Who told you, Dylann Roof?”

Shalom followed the apology with another one, addressing U.S. President Obama directly:

Later, Shalom tweeted in Hebrew that the “scariest” response she received for the tweet came from her husband, adding that she hopes the affair won’t end with a divorce.

This is not Shalom’s first Twitter tackle with the U.S. president. Her previous bout of foot-in-mouth disease occurred last May, when Shalom congratulated Obama for joining Twitter with the following missive: “@POTUS well come, I hope u ’ll write from The hurt of barack and not from the head of President Obama. Kisses from Israel.”

The tweet was later deleted and, when asked about it by someone else on Twitter, Shalom denied she had written it. But journalist and blogger Tal Schneider saved the tweet before it was deleted and confirmed that it was written on Mozes’ account.