The world has been so occupied with the "Miss Israel photobombs Miss Lebanon Saly Greige's selfie" at the Miss Universe competition in Miami on Jan 11 - causing a global media frenzy in return - that nobody seemed to notice the other "controversial" picture circulating of Miss Israel Doron Matalon with fellow contestant Miss Egypt.
In the friendly snapshot, the girls had their arms around each other, and the only person photobombing their Kodak Moment was the man playing golf in a background picture.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Miss Lebanon took to Facebook to defend herself against accusations of fraternizing with the enemy, "The truth behind the photo: 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… this is what happened and I hope to have your full support in the Miss Universe contest."
Meanwhile, Miss Israel had a completely different opinion on the matter. In addition, Miss Egypt's representative Lara Debbana was reportedly instructed by “higher up” to keep her distance from Matalon, and to avoid being photographed with her under any circumstances.
“We took a group picture with Miss Slovenia, Miss Japan, and Miss Lebanon,” said Matalon. “She must have received criticism from fans in Lebanon after I uploaded it, and now she will not stand next to me in any situation, and now Miss Egypt is behaving the same way.
“It’s a shame that we can’t set all the hostility aside just for the period of the competition,” Matalon said, adding that she was not surprised by the development. “We really have a rare chance to meet girls from all over the world and hear about their different cultures,” Matalon said, according to Israellycool.com.
