Guess who's coming to dinner?

The  new "Miss Israel", Israel's entry to the Miss Universe contest Yityish Aynaw has been invited to a state dinner hosted by President Shimon Peres in honor of President Barack Obama's visit to Israel next Thursday. Yityish told the Jerusalem Post that she “didn’t believe that this was happening” when she received a personal dinner invitation from “President Shimon Peres himself".

Aynaw, 21 a former IDF officer, was twelve years old when she immigrated to Israel after the death of her parents in Ethiopia. She is the the first Ethiopian-born Israeli to win the pageant and is very excited by the prospect of meeting Barack Obama who she says was a “notable influence on her life.” Obama “is someone who accomplished things by dint of his hard work,” she said. Aynaw has also named civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. as one of her heroes. “He fought for justice and equality, and that’s one of the reasons I’m here: I want to show that my community has many beautiful qualities that aren’t always represented in the media.”

During the Miss Israel competition, Aynaw told the judges, “It’s important that a member of the Ethiopian community win the competition for the first time. There are many different communities of many different colors in Israel, and it’s important to show that to the world.”