Miss Universe makeup can't hide hatred of Israel: Column An international uproar over a harmless beauty queen selfie exposes deep hatred of Jews.

Eliyahu Federman | USATODAY

Even the beauty of the Miss Universe pageant can't overcome the irrational and one-sided hatred of Israel. This weekend in South Florida, the Miss Israel contestant, Doron Matalon, Instagrammed a friendly selfie she snapped with Miss Lebanon, Saly Greige, and several other contestants.

This caused an uproar in Lebanon with many calling to strip Greige's beauty queen title. The Lebanese government has even launched an official investigation. And the threat is sadly very real. In 1993, Miss Lebanon, Ghada al-Turk, was stripped of her title for taking a photo smiling with her Israeli contender.

Contrast that with Miss Israel proudly displaying the picture, receiving an outpouring of support from Israelis who praised the unity a photo like that could represent, and her express wish that any "hostility" be temporarily forgotten so girls from around the world can meet in peace and unity.

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Greige profusely apologized to her Lebanese fans that were outraged over the fact she would appear in a photo with an Israeli. She also claims that Miss Israel snuck the photo without her consent, and explained how she "was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel."

Some media outlets framed this issue as a kind of petty quarrel or political issue between the contestants. NBC News and People framed the story as a selfie causing a political "stir." The International Business Times shameless headline described it as a "selfie photobomb scandal" and The New Zealand Herald (the largest paper in New Zealand) titled it as a "Selfie spat between Miss Lebanon and Miss Israel."

In reality, this is all about one-sided hatred against Israel and nothing more. It is the Lebanese government that forbids contact with Israelis and has previously stripped a beauty pageants crown for merely taking a picture with her Israeli contender. Israel would never do that (but you can imagine the moral outrage if it did). It is Miss Lebanon's fans that were outraged, not Miss Israel's.

The Miss Universe organization stopped short of condemning the Lebanese reaction, but did call for the contestants to "see just how much they have in common" and form bonds that could "make inroads for change in the future."

The moral difference between Israel and its enemies also showed last summer in the Hamas-Israeli conflict. While the Israeli government and media forcefully and immediately condemned those responsible for the savage murder of an innocent Palestinian boy, Hamas and the Palestinian media praised those that kidnapped and murdered innocent Israeli teens, calling them "heroes." They offered no condemnation. No sympathy.

The Lebanese versus Israeli reaction to the beauty pageant photo is a microcosm of the lack of moral equivalence between Israel and its enemies. There is no harm in a photo with an Israeli beauty queen. Miss Israel saw at as a harmless opportunity to connect, and transcend conflict. Miss Lebanon, her supporters and the Lebanese government condemned it because their deep-rooted hatred of Jews and Israel transcend everything, including a harmless photo in Florida. The hatred is so deep that in 2002, Miss Lebanon left the competition merely because Miss Israel was competing.

Beyond the reality that Israel seeks peace and its enemies embody relentless hatred, this incident also reflects the democratic freedom Israel provides its citizens in allowing free expression online and elsewhere. It highlights the anti-democratic oppression of its neighboring countries, such as Lebanon, which seeks to control its own citizens by placing restrictions on basic human expression such as posing in a benign photo with another person at a beauty pageant.

Eliyahu Federman has written for the New York Post and Huffington Post.

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