<i>Netanyahu's ice-cream habit causes meltdown</i>

As far as vices go, Binyamin Netanyahu's may be quite vanilla. But the revelation that the Israeli prime minister has a budget in excess of £1,700 to feed his formidable ice-cream cravings has caused a media storm in Israel and delivered a gift to his political opponents.
Netanyahu's household accounts show that in 2012 he budgeted about £1,750 for ice-cream bought by his staff from a Jerusalem parlour, according to a report in the financial daily Calcalist. This budget affords the leader and his family 14kg of ice-cream a month.
The timing of this revelation could not have been more inconvenient for the him as he struggles to form a broad coalition government prepared to pass a challenging austerity budget that will squeeze teachers, social workers and police officers.
Netanyahu has attempted to distance himself from the depiction of him as Israel's equivalent of Marie Antoinette, blaming his staff for the extravagant ice-cream deal.
In 2012, Netanyahu and his wife were allocated £430,000 of taxpayers' money for cleaning, clothing and food.