Yes, Snippy, the sooner the better:

The young woman who became the first Ethiopian-born Israeli to be crowned Miss Israel last month has a very special dinner engagement next week.

Yityish Aynaw, who arrived in Israel about a decade ago as an orphan, was invited to meet President Obama at a gala dinner hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem on Thursday, according to media reports.

Obamas staff invited her to the dinner being held in his honor that has a guest list of just 120 names, including Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It will be Obama's first visit to Israel while serving as president.

"I have butterflies in my stomach," the beauty queen said Wednesday, according to ynetnews.com.

According to media reports, Aynaw's father was killed in a war when she was 2, and she and her older brother were raised by their mother. When she was 12, their mother died and she and her brother later relocated to Israel, where they lived with their grandparents, according to news reports.

Ten years ago, I was walking around barefoot in Ethiopia and I never imagined that one day I would be in the land of Israel, meeting the Israeli president and the president of the United States, Aynaw told ynetnews.com. I could never have imagined such a powerful and exciting situation."

The meeting is not without controversy, with some critics saying she skipped ahead of important politicians and influential Israelis. Shes the highest-ranking Israeli to grace Obama with her presence, wrote one sarcastic commenter on ynetnews.com. Just what America needs, wisdom and advice from a 21-year-old beauty queen, chimed in another on YouTube.

Aynaw said she believes she received the exclusive invite to meet Obama because of their shared African heritage.

Aynaw is very excited about meeting the leader whose accomplishments had notable influence on her life, the paper reported. The American president, she told the Post, is someone who accomplished things by his hard work.

-- Edited by Cy Valley on Friday 15th of March 2013 09:26:28 AM

"I am in charge".

But wait. Say, isn't he deceased, FMB? I realize news comes to you via Pony Express but I'd think it would have gotten there by now.

Never heard of *Ynet before taday, always relied on Al Jazeera for English-language news outa the Middle East.

These folks* are obviously pro-Israel, and biased. Not unexpected, but AJ seems more balanced, and has a wider audience across the entire region. And can be viewed in several regional languages, and dialects.

It's sadly true, but any private American citizen traveling in the Middle East has a target on his back! That's an area of the world I'd like to visit before I die. I'm still hopeful, but realistic in that peace is still a long way off!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ynetnews