Making amends, minister’s wife joins team Obama

Weeks after igniting a furor by implying US President Barack Obama is “black and weak” in an ill-considered joke, the wife of Minister Silvan Shalom reversed course, now indicating that the commander in chief is in fact “strong” and rainbow colored.

In a video released Sunday, Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes praised Obama for the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in all 50 US states.

“I think President Obama is a very strong president, and the moment he decided to allow same-sex marriage, I became his biggest fan,” Nir-Mozes said.

The statement was made in a video in which celebrities called on Knesset members to support gay marriage in Israel.

“Kudos, Barack Obama,” she added, emphasizing her newfound admiration of the US president, before asking Knesset members to support the universal right to marriage “regardless of race, religion, nationality or sexuality.”

In June, Nir-Mozes, a TV presenter, tweeted: “Do u know what Obama coffee is? Black and weak.”

She quickly deleted the tweet and apologized, but not before a firestorm erupted, with hundreds of commenters calling Nir-Mozes “arrogant,” a “disgrace” and “explicitly racist.”

After deleting the tweet, Mozes posted, “I apologize, that was a stupid joke somebody told me.”

A second apology posted a half-hour later was directed at the US leader: “President Obama I shouldn’t have written the inappropriate joke I heard. I like people no matter about their race and religion.”

Adopting a more lighthearted tone as she continued her online damage control, in another tweet Nir-Mozes wrote that she hoped her husband, Interior Minister Silvan Shalom, wouldn’t divorce her over the social media uproar. The minister, a member of the Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is also a vice prime minister and represents Israel in its strategic dialogue with the United States administration.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest later zinged Nir-Mozes back over the tweet at a daily briefing, but claimed the White House was not dwelling on the gaffe.

“On Twitter, you’re limited to 140 characters, but it certainly has the capacity to be very revealing,” he said.

In a separate incident in May, Nir-Mozes was accused of trolling Obama soon after the president launched his personal Twitter account.

In that tweet, the MK’s wife wrote “@POTUS well come, I hope u ‘ll write from The hurt of barack, and not from the head of Rrsedent Obama. Kisses from israel [sic].”

That tweet was also deleted shortly after, and Nir-Mozes later denied having written it. However, journalist Tal Schneider took a screenshot of the tweet and noted that it came from her account.

On June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that there were no legal grounds to oppose same-sex marriage, thus making the practice legal in all states of the union. The ruling was hailed by activists all over the world as a landmark achievement for the LGBT community in its efforts to win equal legal footing with heterosexuals.

In Israel, where the laws of marriage are still controlled by the Chief Rabbinate, legalizing same-sex marriage is not on the agenda, though the state recognizes same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

Jonathan Beck contributed to this report.