The Slatest

Benjamin Netanyahu, Wife Spent $68,000 in Two Years on Makeup and Hairstyling

Totally worth it.

Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara spent $68,000 in two years on makeup, hairstyling, and “presentation,” a report by the country’s comptroller says.

Now, that might sound like a lot, but if you break down the numbers, it ends up averaging out to $325 per Netanyahu per week, which is … [squints at spreadsheet] still a lot to spend on hair and makeup.

Comptroller Joseph Shapira also found that the Netanyahus spent $41,000 in one year on takeout meals, or $111 a day, despite employing an in-house chef and spending an additional $213 daily on groceries and other food and entertainment expenses for the “prime minister, his family and his guests.”

In addition to documenting extravagance, the report suggests that the Netanyahus could be subject to potential criminal charges for hiring a political ally named Avi Fahima to perform electrical work on their seaside home in Caesarea. (A criminal investigation of the couple is also underway in the matter of Sara Netanyahu’s alleged embezzlement of the deposit money you get for returning bottles to the supermarket.) Get a load of this advanced boondoggling:

A special committee at the Prime Minister’s Office … allegedly approved the request on condition that the work was urgent and could not be postponed to a weekday. The committee also stipulated that the work would not be done by Fahima.

The Prime Minister’s Office thus issued a tender to choose an electrician for the private residence. The cheapest offer was rejected after it turned out that Fahima was a senior foreman at the company. The second-cheapest offer was chosen; the winning firm then hired Fahima as its subcontractor.

After promising not to hire the prime minister’s political ally Avi Fahima for an official job, the committee hired a company that subcontracted the work to Avi Fahima, but only after almost hiring Avi Fahima directly. Everything keeps turning up Avi Fahima!