At the Miss Universe competition in Miami, Miss Israel snapped a selfie with a few other contestants – from right to left: Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia and Miss Lebanon.

That’s what these competitions are all about – being friendly and charming and beautiful. And, just for one moment, living in a world where international differences don’t matter.

Except that’s the thing. Because Lebanon is dominated by Muslim terrorists, like Hezbollah, and even foreign soldiers from Iran. And they regularly fire rockets over the border at Israeli civilians. And so Israel retaliates.

Those troubles are a million miles away from sunny Miami and Donald Trump. But when that beautiful selfie photo was posted on Instagram, extremists in Lebanon were outraged that Miss Lebanon would even be seen with Miss Israel.

And they demanded that she be stripped of her Miss Lebanon title – for being too friendly with the contestant from the Jewish state.

The Lebanese government actually launched an investigation into the selfie.

Miss Lebanon was mortified. This contest is her big chance – and this picture was putting it at risk.

So she came up with an alibi. She said that it was an ambush. That the sneaky, conniving Jewess tricked her, and ambushed her. Here’s what Miss Lebanon wrote in a panic, on Facebook:

“Since the first day of my arrival to participate to Miss Universe, I was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel (that tried several times to have a photo with me) … I was having a photo with Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia and myself; suddenly Miss Israel jumped in, took a selfie, and put it on her social media.”

Take a look at that picture again. Does it look that way? Does it look like Miss Israel sneaked into the photo, unannounced, tricking the other girls in it? Of course not. All four girls look posed and ready for a shot – one of thousands that all the girls must have taken of themselves and each other.

But let’s accept, just for argument, that Miss Lebanon’s excuse is true. That this Jew was really, really trying to get her photo taken with Miss Lebanon. Stop and realize how sad that alibi is, even on its own terms.

Even in Miami, at the most exciting time of her life, a Lebanese beauty queen – nothing to do with politics or the military – is so afraid of being labelled a Jew-lover that she was “very cautious to avoid” the Jew all week. Better be careful – you don’t want Jewish cooties.

It’s sad that a girl would come to an event that is supposed to be about international sisterhood, and would be so paranoid about even being seen with a Jew.

But even more gross is that her bizarre excuse is considered acceptable.

Could you imagine if, when South Africa was still governed by racist Apartheid, if a white South African contestant had said the same thing about a black contestant – that she was so sorry to have been photographed with a black girl, but you know how sneaky they can be.

It’s almost uneventful now, the demonization of Jews and Israel. It’s normal. It’s like it’s 1930 again – does anyone care?