Tel-Chai Nation

Israeli beauty pageant contestant Melanie Shiraz was interviewed about her participation in the Miss Universe contest, which I'd assumed had gone under but is apparently still in business, and taking place in Thailand, a country where some foreign workers came from to work in Israel, and were also raped/murdered on October 7, 2023, just like the Israeli counterparts:

Drama seems to surround every international competition involving Israel these days. Against the backdrop of examining Israel's participation in Eurovision 2026 and Spain's decision to boycott the competition, the demonstrations during the Vuelta de España cycling race, and the official announcement of Israel's removal from Giro d'Italia, comes the turn of another veteran competition to which an Israeli delegation is sent – Miss Universe.

Beyond the obvious challenges facing the Israeli representative, this year the competition takes an additional turn – "Miss Palestine" will participate for the first time in the competition's approximately 70-year history, and on the glamorous stage in Thailand next month, an unprecedented encounter is expected alongside the 58 other delegations from around the world.

A great responsibility rests on the shoulders of 26-year-old Melanie Shiraz, who has been chosen to represent Israel, particularly in light of the new circumstances. However, she doesn't seem troubled. "As someone who built a company, I think I experienced the maximum level of mental overload," she says with a smile when I ask her about this. "When I'm driven to do something and when I really believe in it, it makes it easy. It might be overwhelming, but in the best kind of way because I know that what I'm doing is making a difference." [...]

Q: Are you worried about the possible backlash you might get for representing Israel?

A: I've already gotten backlash, and I always expect to get backlash. I do think that it has been worse this year because of the situation that we're in after October 7th, and the very negative perspectives a lot of people in the world have. Since the Miss Palestine situation has unfolded, it's been exponentially more than it was before. I've gotten people probably paying for bots that just completely ambushed my account with thousands of 'free Palestine,' 'baby killer,' and other horrible death threats my way, which has sucked.

"I expected it, but one thing is to expect it, and then there's one thing to get a message saying, 'I hope you end up like one of the hostages, I hope you suffer the same fate, she was shot in the head and carried naked on a truck. Some of those things send chills down my spine, and it's made me worry a little bit about my security."

I sure hope she's going to have security staff provided if needed, but equally important, all in Thailand who're realists must speak out about this, because they too were victims of racism, and the tragedy proves racism even against non-Israelis is still very prevalent worldwide.

Q: We saw what happened with both Yuval Raphael and Eden Golan, our representatives at Eurovision in 2024 and 2025.

A: "At the end of the day, they both placed pretty highly. So I think that there's a very vocal minority of people that really hate us. I think at the end of the day, both of them proved that they're able to transcend politics with their talent and with the beauty that they have to bring to the world, and that's exactly what I'm hoping that I'll be able to do."

Good luck with that. But regarding the pageant itself:

Q: We have to address the elephant in the room. This year is quite unprecedented for Miss Universe because, for the first time, we have a new delegate – Miss Palestine. How did you feel when you heard the news for the first time?

A: "I won't lie and say that I wasn't surprised. The reason I was surprised is just because it seems to be a very political move from a seemingly nonpolitical organization. But on the other hand, I can look at it and say, you know what? I appreciate the organization for putting politics aside and wanting to empower women to speak no matter where they're from.

"I think we're here to embody peace and coexistence and bring forward very positive messages to the world. And so I think engaging and speaking about another person's country and spreading misinformation, for example, is not something that's appropriate. I think she is using her messaging to be very political and anti-Israel. And so I think that that inadvertently sends her audience to come for me. It's spreading information like '680,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7th.' Not even Hamas is backing those numbers. She has a very large following, and I think it's quite careless."

Must we recall this same organization may still support the whole notion of men pretending to be women, calling themselves "transsexuals/genders", has a transsexual practitioner as owner, and for all we know, is very likely willing to nominate a man at the expense of a woman for equally political reasons, even after the murder of Charlie Kirk? I sure hope Shiraz knows better than to be lenient on LGBT ideology like that, because many LGBT practitioners have also proven to be very antisemitic, especially since October 7, 2023, and any Israeli who's willing to let that go unopposed is making the same mistake they'll make if they take a lenient view of Islam. So good luck to Ms. Shiraz. But she'll have to be realist and vigilant if she really wants to prove she stands firm for Israel's sake at the Miss Universe pageant, and if they still come within miles of supporting LGBT/Islam, then it'd be better such a pageant close down for real.

Labels: anti-semitism, Asia, dhimmitude, islam, Israel, jihad, military, misogyny, Moonbattery, political corruption, racism, sexual violence, showbiz, terrorism, war on terror