Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Melanie Shiraz | Miss Israel | 05-06-26

Transcript

Melanie Shiraz | Miss Israel | 05-06-26 · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is the big story. Yesterday, missus Israel walks into
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a bar in Williamsburg and who's sitting there but the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: wretched vial Anti Semite. That is New York City's first
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Lady Rabot Duwaji.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: The Mayor's wife.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: So I reached out to all my buddies, Emily Austin
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in Gazambi's Rocky till I bonally tracked down Miss Israel.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Her name is Melanie Shirazi and she's joining us live,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: which is very nice. Right now from somewhere on nor
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna give away where she is because you're crazy,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: you people out there. So Melanie, good morning on this
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Wednesday morning.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: How are you, Hey, how are you?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: I'm doing great.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you for hopping on this morning, and thank you
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: for agreeing to do this. It's a big story here
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: in New York and now it's all over the internet
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: as well.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: It's a big deal.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: So if you wouldn't mind, well, first of all, you
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: you were Miss Israel last year. Are you still Miss Israel?
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Yes? So Melanie Shira Miss Israel twenty twenty five through
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty six. I still have a couple months last months.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Left, Okay, and Israel like an annual thing. So somebody
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: else next year? Is it two years?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: How long do you hold that title?
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: It's annual. It's annual in every country.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Okay. And where in Israel do you live? I'm curious.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: I live in Tel Aviv. But I've actually been in
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: the US for the last two months because I got
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: stuck because of the war, and then I ended up
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: embarking on a speaking tour, so I've been doing that
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: for the last three weeks.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know you had a big speaking engagement here
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: in New York. It's a couple of days ago. That's
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: why you were here, and that's how you ended up
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: in this cafe in Williamsburg. Now did you know about
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: that place? Did somebody recommend that to you? Why did
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: you end up in that specific cafe?
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: So what brought me to New York was that I
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: was hosting the Consul General and the Consulate of Israel
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: in New York's annual Independence Day celebration, which was a
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: very big event. And a few hours before that, I
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: just decided I wanted to go have a coffee. You
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: have breakfast before I have to get ready for the event.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: So no, I just walked walked out of my friend
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: apartment that I was staying at, saw this cafe. I
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: thought it looked cute and started sitting having my coffee
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: my breakfast. And maybe ten minutes after that, none other
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: than Rama Duaji walks in and not only does she
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: walk into the same cafe as me, she actually sits
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: right next to me on a bench.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: You can't make this up. You can't make this up.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: I said to myself, like, what are the odds? Like,
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: there is definitely a reason that this is happening. I
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: don't know if I'd believe in that kind of stuff,
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: but there's no way I'm gonna let this girl sit
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: next to me right now, and I'm not gonna tell
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: her anything.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: All right, So obviously you're well aware of what she
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: did in the past, liking the graphic images from October
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the South.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, you're aware of all that.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: But initially it seemed like Melanie that you were okay
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: with at least engaging in some conversation. Was this a
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: strategy by you to make her feel comfortable and then
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: go after her. How did the whole conversation start.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: I'm always up for having a conversation, you know, even
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: if somebody's standing on the opposite side of me, As
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: long as they're willing to have a dialogue, I think
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: that that's the best approach to this kind of stuff.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: I think people are way too divisive and divided. But
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I did know that obviously she has a pretty strong
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: sentiment towards Israeli for god knows what reason, And so
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: I decided to first ask her for a picture, just
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: to kind of gauge what vibe she was going to
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: be in. So I introduced myself, said my name is Melanie,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: and I asked her for a photo, and she took
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: a photo with me, and she was very, very nice.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: And then as we were taking the photo, I told
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: her I'm actually miss Israel. And I saw I saw
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: the expression change, even though I have to say, I
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: mean this is this is part of her job as
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: a public figure these days, I guess. But she did
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: stay polite and cordial, but you can very you could.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: You could very distinctly see the body language change. And
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: so I noticed this and I told her, listen, I
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: have to say, I'm very disappointed in the things that
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: I have seen you posting or endorsing. But part of
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: my role as Melanie and as missus israel Is to
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: engage with people in productive dialogue, and I would be
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: happy to have a conversation with you now, you know,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: I think that for the wife of a mayor, like
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: the right response would have been anything. But she kind
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: of brushed me off and smiled awkwardly. And then I
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: asked her, since I gauged this disinterest from her, I
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: asked her, have you ever met in Israeli before? Have
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: you ever gotten to speak to in Israeli directly before?
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: And she once again kind of brushed me off and said, yeah, yeah,
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: I have many Israeli friends, which I charge believe and
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: so and then so I just wanted to see, you know,
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: like would she have taken a photo of me had
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: she known who I was? And so I asked her, hey,
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: I you know, I didn't like the way this one
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: turned out? Do you mind get another one? And she
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: said no, I'm I think that's I think that's enough.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: And that was that was pretty much it. So you know,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: when I have I'm not the kind of person that
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: that you know, aggressively just opens up my camera and
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: and and starts, uh, you know, talking at people. I
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: figured I would get her consent, but yes, it was.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: It was a very very interesting interaction.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I will say, Wow, So when she walked in Deuage,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: you recognized her right away right away.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: I did, But I was just thinking to myself, like,
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: what are the odds that this girl is sitting right
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: next to me, Like there's no way. Yeah, but she
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: also she also looked so much like the the photos
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: or like the persona that that they try to present
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: about her. She came in with her little sketch book
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: or notebook or whatever it was. I'd like wired headphones.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: You know. I don't know if if if that's like
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: an to look like she's part of the public and
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: very likable, or if that's just where she goes. Obviously
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: I don't know because I don't live in New York.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: But but yeah, many people have asked me, like, there's
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: no way this is a coincidence, right, like you were
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: looking for her. But the answer is definitely not.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: No. The Masade set this up.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: That'll be the folks that on the side they had
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: anything to do with this. They made sure that Melanie
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: walked in and there's raua. I mean, look, at the
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: end of the day, I think it's fair to say
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: that you really did expect that she would apologize, not
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: necessarily to you, but for her comments for what she
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: liked on the internet. You know, you say she had
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: a sketchbook. She's also involved with a lady in these
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: children's books that also hates the Jewish.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Very very public.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so everything she does, everything this woman does, centers
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: around hating Jewish people. If she would have said to you,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: mel listen, I don't feel that way, that was a
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: long time ago, that would go away. But at least
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: trying to make some type of explanation. Don't you think
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: that would have gone a long way?
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: Definitely.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: I mean she publicly apologized, just I think it was
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: a few weeks ago, and obviously I think she was
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: forced to because the style of rhetoric that she was
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: found endorsing just kind of reached a new low or
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: a new extreme.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: But you know, when I told her, I was very
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: very nice and very cordial. Honestly I was, you know,
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: I was. I was really trying to not antagonize her
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: because I thought like this could actually be a very
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: interesting and potentially very productive conversation. So I told her, Look,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: I have to say, in all honesty, I'm disappointed in this,
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: in the content that I have seen you endorse online,
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: but I would so love to have a conversation with you.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: And you know, when I said that, she she kind
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: of it was like a non response. She kind of
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: nodded or you know, just kind of was listening to
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: what I said, but without actually acknowledging it, which I
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: think is it's weird and it's kind of crazy for
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: two reasons, Like, first of all, you publicly apologize, and
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: so how is it that you can't apologize to an
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Israeli face to face?
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Hold one, you say publicly apologized, Melanie, she never apologized
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: for liking the figures on octoberse.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: Non apology and no, no, no, it was a non apology.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: But what I'm saying is that it's a lot harder
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: to do that publicly than it is to just acknowledge
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: in Israeli telling you right that they have seen you
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: do this. You're literally sitting right next to me, I mean,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: even out of discomfort. If I were in her position,
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: I would have probably acknowledged that, but she didn't. And
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: then obviously, I mean, you heard the story. But right
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: after that the conversation kind of ended. She obviously wasn't
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: interested in having a conversation with me, claimed she had
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: heard my side many times, and then refused to take
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: any other photos or engage with me in any other way. So,
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: you know, obviously, I think that it's very representative of
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: a larger you know, of the larger picture, or like
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: this is like a micro example of the macro And
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: it's something that I've experienced over the last several weeks
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: touring campuses across the US. There's one side that is
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: definitely open and willing to have dialogue, and there's one
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: side that is not. And you can even see it
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: in the in the in the style of protests that
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: are going on. Never have I seen uh an Iran protests,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: I mean against the IRGC or a pro Israel protest
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: get as nasty as the Palestinian protest. It's very clear
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: that there's a lack of willingness to have any amount
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: of productive dialogue on one side. So it was just
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: sad to see because this is the mayor's wife. I mean,
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: this is not only it's it's not only like a
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: mayor's wife, it's the mayor of New York City. Like
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: there there are so many Jewish people in New York City.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: So it's it's very it's very disheartening to me to
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: see that that's the you know, that's the approach and
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: one of the most Jewish, high density Jewish populations in
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: the world.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Well, I live here and I spend five days a
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: week and twenty hours a week talking about the mayor.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: And he's an evil, anti semi Jewish, hating, anti cop
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: anti capitalism, anti everything guy, and his wife and him.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Are person was the first thing he did when he
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: did when he came into office. That's right, now, that
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: doesn't surprise anyone, that's right.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: And you know you talk about speaking on campuses. His
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: best buddy, he loves this guy, Melanie is Mahmoud Khalil,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: who I call the campus terrorist. So not that long ago,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: at the end of Ramadan here in New York City,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: at the house that we pay taxes for, Gracie Mansion,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: there was your new friend Rahwah entertaining Khalil, his wife
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: and their baby.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: So there you are.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Doing a great job speaking at all these campuses, trying
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: to help these kids get through a difficult time. And
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: this lady and her husband are entertaining that couple at
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: gray Sea Mansion. That's all you need to know.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: It's funny because Mayor Adams, before Mum Donnie came into office,
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: had invited me to to Grace, so I was actually
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: there some months ago. And on the on the on
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: the other side, Mum Donnie's office failed or declines to
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: comment on this story. So you know, it's it's just
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: very very very different approach. It's it's very clear that,
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: you know, one side is not interested in discourse with
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: the other. It's just sad to me that this is,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: you know, like one of the biggest cities in the US.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: It's sad.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: So when you're in uh, you know, I have a
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: lot of friends in Israel. I go back and forth
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: now a bit. I'll be going back again in June
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: to the Waldorf Astoria to speak at BJNS dot Org
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Summit International Policy Summit. They make a big deal of
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the last night, Melanie. They get me and bb and
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Mark Levin and Mike Hawkabee, a whole.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Bunch of big time folks. You know, it's a great time.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I've gone back now four times since the war started
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, and I love the country.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: And I met a million brainds.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: So my WhatsApp, for example, every day you get twenty
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: five messages on my WhatsApp from Israelis and most of
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the messages are about mom Donnie. A lot of my
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: friends who move from New York that now live in
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Juday and Samaria, they live in Jerusalem, they live in
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Tel Aviv, hyper and Atania. They can't believe that we elected,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: not we, but New York elected this anti Semite and
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: his horrible wife to run this city.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you wanted that.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Fortunately, yeah, Unfortunately a lot of Jewish people also elected him.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: And I know it's a phenomenon that I've seen, especially
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: across campuses. I think it's young people that think that
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: just because they align with more progressive values, they have
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: to vote Democrat no matter what. And they, you know,
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: them like that party, and some people in the party
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: are do no wrong. I've heard people justify things like
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Jewish people justify things that I'm Bani has done that,
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: you know, shripped protections for Jews in New York. And
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: it's just very very sad for me to see that
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: because I think that those Jewish people have no self like,
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: no awareness of what's really going on. I think if
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: they did, they would be a lot more scared.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: They'd be pissed. Last one, you want Miss Israel. That's
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: not a small thing. That's a big deal.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: And all the guys on my show want to know
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: what are some of the perks you get being Miss
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Israel when you go home?
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: Oh, I got a lot of anti Semitic comments on
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: my DM.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, ya ya yay.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: You know funny, you know, somebody, somebody sent me the
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: picture of you and Rahwa in the Brooklyn Cafe a
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: couple of days ago, and they titled it Beauty and
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the Beast.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: You were not the beast.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: No comment, no comment, But I will say, I mean
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: I've kind of gone rogue in my role because I like, ideally,
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: you know, a Miss Israel or a Miss USA or Miss.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Anything, it should be focused on kind of more like
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: pageant related things. Now, I knew from the moment I
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: entered this competition that I wouldn't have that luxury, and
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: that's actually the reason why I entered Miss Israel. I'm
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: not a pageant person at all. I'm like the opposite
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: of it. I have a motorcycle and I do tech
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: like you know, it's really it's not like my space,
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: but I recognized it as an opportunity or identified it
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: as an opportunity to advocate for Israel. And so everything
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: I've done is kind of been out of scope of
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: my role. I think it's a very critical part of
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: my role and what makes it important today. But you know,
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: had I not decided to do that, you know, probably
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: you wouldn't even hear about me, and I would be
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: doing a couple of fashion shows and that's it. But
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: I think that as ISRAELI is, we don't have that luxury,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: nor is that something that's interesting for me. So, you know,
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: in terms of benefits, I'll say it's come with a
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: lot of challenges. But the benefit, the main bene that
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: has been being able to do that and really being
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: able to reach a lot of people. I think that
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: that's been extremely, uh, extremely fulfilling, as difficult as I
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: spend times.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Ah, good for you, God bless you. You're terrific. You
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: really are.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe one day you could be the next woman prime
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: minister since Golden my year. How about that run that place?
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: You can run that joint, can't you.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: You're not the first to say.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: I'm sure, I'm not. No, you really are great.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: You're terrific and I love the fact that you did
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: all this just to be an advocate for Israel and
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: your voice does matter and we love you here. We
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: love you, nott Rawa, So thank you for calling in
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: this morning. Enjoy the rest of your time in the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: United States and I'll see you in Israel come June.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much much soon all right, Melanie, take
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: care sweet on mare. She is Miss Israel. Melanie Shirazi
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: brilliant younger lady by the way, very very smart and
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: clearly as a big future ahead of her.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Congratulations to Melanie. Thanks for listening to Sit In Friends
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: in the Morning.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: You can hear sit in Friends in the Morning weekday
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: mornings at six. If you like the podcast, share it
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: with your friends and listen anytime at WABC radio dot
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: com and download the WABC Radio app. Hit that subscribe
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: button on all major podcast platforms. Plus follow WABC on
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: social on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X see you next
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: time for a new episode, so you never have to
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: wonder what the heck is going on here.