OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu is changing his mid-air sleeping arrangements after a public flap over a $127,000 custom-built bedroom for the Israeli prime minister and his wife on a flight to London last month. Israel's Channel 10 television reported the sum was tagged onto the $300,000 cost of chartering an El Al Boeing 767 that flew the couple and Netanyahu's entourage of aides and bodyguards to former British leader Margaret Thatcher's funeral. News of the extra public expenditure, for a 5-1/2-hour flight, caused an outcry on Israel's social media and in its mainstream newspapers that coincided with protests over government plans to raise taxes as part of an austerity budget. “Bibi is king, and in a monarchy, when the king and queen fly, price is no object,” said political commentator Sima Kadmon, referring to the prime minister by his nickname. “Where is the shame?” she wrote on the front page of Yedioth Ahronoth. — Reuters
