Desperate Foreign Ministry Wives

Israel's foreign service is a shambles. First of all, the ambassador to Washington, Danny Ayalon, is alleging that Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom tried to get his assistant fired -- because Silvan's wife Judy was furious that said assistant did not manage to arrange a meeting for her with Madonna when the star visited Israel. Quite what the Washington-based worker has to do with Madonna's visit is unclear (to me, at least) but judging by Judy's track record, the story is not at all unlikely.
The scary thing is that it's widely acknowledged that the real driving force behind Silvan is Judy. Without her push and resources (her family owns a big chunk of Israel's media), he probably would not have got very far. How much influence and involvement does this shallow, brainless, spoilt woman have in Israel's foreign ministry? It's about time someone looked into this.
Not that Anne Ayalon, the wife of the Israeli ambassador to Washington, is any better. According to YNet -- which, of course, is owned by Judy Nir Mozes Shalom's family and is therefore perhaps not an entirely trustworthy source on this matter -- the Madonna allegations were intended to deflect a scandal about Anne treating the embassy's staff as if they were 'her personal servants.' According to the site, amongst other allegations, Ayalon -- who at one point wanted to replace the entire staff body of the embassy -- regularly called staff, including senior staff, 'stupid' in front of others, in fits of rage. And worse... My favorite quote, presumably from an interview with her:

"אם תשוחח עם אנטוניו תגלה שהוא בעצם מפגר. לא ידענו את זה כששכרנו אותו".
למה את מתכוונת ב"מפגר"
"
"אני מתכוונת לזה לחלוטין. אם תדבר איתו תבין".

Or in English:

Ayalon: "If you talk to Antonio [the butler -- MS] you'll discover he's actually a retard. We didn't know that when we hired him."
Interviewer: "What do you mean by 'retard'?"
Ayalon: "I totally mean it. If you speak with him you'll understand."

Which is just charming. (And please don't tell me that Israelis tend to such politically incorrect terms more freely than Europeans and Americans. Apart from such language being completely inappropriate and insensitive in its own right, the Ambassador's wife really should know better.)
In short, television execs sick of setting their dramas and soap operas in law offices, hospitals and police stations might want to turn their attentions to the Israeli foreign ministry. What luck that there are no important issues to deal with, leaving ministers, ambassadors and their wives with plenty of time to develop all that good material.

UPDATE: I see that YNet has dished the dirt on 'Madam Ayalon,' who apparently is American-born and bred, before. Could she really have asked her babysitter to bow before her???????