Israel minister’s wife sorry for ‘Obama Coffee’ gag

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The flamboyant wife of Israeli Interior Minister Silvan Shalom published an "inappropriate joke" Sunday about US President Barack Obama on her Twitter account, only to later delete it and apologise.

"Do u know what Obama Coffee is? Black and weak," Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes wrote to her 74,400 followers.

Online shock, condemnation and accusations of racism later led her to delete the incriminating tweet.

"I apologise, that was a stupid joke somebody told me," she wrote on her @JudyMozes Twitter account in English.

"President Obama I shouldnt have written the inappropriate joke I heard," she also wrote, addressing the US leader directly. "I like people no matter about their race and religion."

"Sorry if I caused any offence to anyone. I hope I will stay married when my husband will land and hear what I did," she added.

Her husband, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, is also the minister charged with strategic ties with the United States.

The outspoken Nir-Mozes is a scion of the Mozes family that owns the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily. She hosts a weekly radio programme as well as participating in a number of television shows.

She publishes blunt tweets and Facebook posts about a wide range of social and political issues, including criticising members of Israel's political left for what she perceives as their lack of patriotism.

Netanyahu is also a regular target for her criticism.