Why Obama is Miss Israel’s ‘role model’

Israel’s newly crowned Miss Israel, the first Ethiopian-born Israeli to win the title, received an invitation to meet with President Barack Obama during his visit next week, and said Wednesday she planned to tell him he has been her role model and inspiration.

Yityish “Titi” Aynaw, a 21-year-old from Netanya who came to Israel at age 12, was chosen Miss Israel 2013 two weeks ago.

Obama’s success, she said Wednesday, had shown her that “everyone can reach the top,” no matter what their creed or skin color. Like the president, she added, she was raised without her parents, by her grandparents.

The first thing she would tell him, she said, is that he has been “a role model” and “an inspiration.” The second, she said, was that he should release spy-for-Israel Jonathan Pollard.

Ahead of his first visit as president, Obama was interviewed Wednesday by Israeli television, and said he was looking forward with great enthusiasm to his trip, and especially relished the opportunity to speak to the Israeli public at an address he is set to deliver in Jerusalem next Thursday.

The Channel 2 interview is to be broadcast on Thursday. Interviewer Yonit Levi said Obama spoke about the challenge of thwarting Iran, negotiations with the Palestinians, the Pollard case “and what he’d really like to do in Tel Aviv.”