She may be the 2007 beauty queen, fulfilling her childhood dream and the dream of many other Israeli girls, but she’ll soon be heading out with a busload of hundreds of other 18-year-olds to her army base because she is just like every other Israeli teen who is required to do army service.
Liran Kohner, from a Tel Aviv suburb, was crowned Miss Israel 2007 on Tuesday night and will soon trade in her scepter for a gun as a recent high school grad.
The beauty pageant, which was organized by the woman's weekly magazine La’isha, (Woman) held its 57th annual contest at the Congress Center in Haifa.
Once Kohner becomes a fully enlisted soldier she’ll have to make time to fulfill her beauty queen obligations such as participating in the Miss Universe contest. Kohner, however, has bigger dreams. She hopes to become a doctor or a veterinarian, following her family line of physicians.
The star-studded evening was hosted by professional model Galit Guttman and had appearances from groups like Teapacks, who will be performing at the Eurovision song contest.
Another woman who shared many of the same experiences as the other contestants, but was absent from the stage, was Druze beauty Angelina Fares. Fares was forced to withdraw from the contest following death threats from community members who said she was destroying Druze honor. Fares would have been the first Druze competitor.
Former beauty queen Yael Nizri handed her crown over and told her successor, “It's not just a beauty contest, it is also a platform for representing Israel.”