Ambassador's complaints passed on
Israel’s Ambassador to U.S. Danny Ayalon says Foreign Minister Shalom’s wife intervened in ministry appointments; Attorney General Mazuz transfers case to Civil Service Commission
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decided Monday to transfer complaints made by Ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon against Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and his wife Judy Nir-Mozes-Shalom to the care of Civil Service Commissioner Shmuel Hollander.
In doing so Mazuz has, in effect, rejected options of launching a criminal investigation into the matter or transferring the case to the State Comptroller’s Office.
Sources close to Shalom said in response “All the ambassador’s efforts to divert the attention from the investigation conducted against him by way of filing a ridiculous and exaggerated complaint with the attorney General have not succeeded.”
Legal sources said the decision to transfer the case to the Civil Service Commission stems from the affair’s disciplinary aspects and from the fact that two senior officials have given contradictory and accusatory versions.
The issue must be clarified, they added.
The complaints
Tensions between Shalom and Ayalon reached new heights after the ambassador turned to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and claimed that the foreign minister’s wife intervened in Foreign Ministry appointments.
Specifically, Ayalon claimed Judy Shalom-Nir-Mozes demanded that the ambassador’s aide be dismissed for failing to arrange a meeting between her and pop star Madonna.
Moreover, Ayalon apparently possesses tapes proving that the foreign minister’s wife meddled in appointments, according to a Yedioth Ahronoth story published Monday.
Among those apparently recorded by Ayalon is Foreign Ministry Director-General Ron Prosor, who on Sunday flatly denied that Shalom’s wife intervened in appointments.
According to reports foreign ministry officials are convinced Ayalon’s days as ambassador to the U.S. are numbered as Shalom is determined to dismiss him upon conclusion of the Civil Service Commission’s investigation into the conduct of Ayalon’s wife and her treatment of embassy employees, which was launched following a Yedioth Ahronoth investigative report.
