Fresh off providing Israeli Foreign Minister/Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni with critical last-minute quasi-support that pushed her over the top in Israel's national elections (an outcome that set Livni up to become the first Isareli political leader to win the most parliamentary seats and then watch the guy who lost to her (aka Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu) be asked to form the ruling coalition government), Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli has agreed to become Israel's newest eco-warrior.

Israel's Water Authority has reportedly hired Refaeli to star in a water conservation campaign amid Israel's ongoing drought.

We will have to see if the Water Authority faces the same kind of boycott calls that hit Fox clothing when it hired Refaeli, who drew the ire of many Israelis when she was quoted (her friends and allies say misquoted) as saying that draft dodging in Israel "paid off big time."

(Israelis have also presumably forgotten Refaeli's "I'm not comfortable in Israel" quip to a British paper after bringing boyfriend Leonardo DiCaprio to Israel for a turbulent tour. And it is probably best for everyone to ignore her "I won't bring anyone famous to Israel" proclamation...)

(As for Leo, well there are reports that Leo can forget about marrying the 23-year-old model unless he converts to Judaism. The New York Daily News reports that Refaeli's dad has put down an ultimatum: "If Leo doesn't covert to Judaism, there will be no marriage.")  

Putting all that aside, Refaeli's global fame expanded significantly because of her coveted position as Sports Illustrated 2009 Swimsuit Edition Cover Model.

As is already clear, Refaeli is more than a model to many Israelis.

She has been a lightning rod for criticism.

But now, some see in Refaeli a chance for Israel to show a different side of this conflict-weary nation as it tries to deal with the international political backlash created by the country's 22-day military operation in Gaza.

"Israelis tend to see their country as part of the West, and compare it to the United States and Britain," writes Haaretz diplomatic analyst Aluf Benn in a piece titled "Bar Refaeli in Gaza."  

"The problem is that the West is not too thrilled by the comparison and regards Israel as an oddity, a country using excessive force in permanent conflict with its neighbors," Benn writes. "In Europe, and to a growing extent in the U.S., the use of military power is seen as primitive, something that belongs to the previous century, something that decent people don't do. When the Europeans apply force in Afghanistan or Kosovo, they are not proud of it like Israeli leaders who get excited about the bombing of Gaza...

"Bar Refaeli is expected to prove that Israel is like the West," says Benn. "The young women of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are not photographed in bathing suits. Neither are Egyptian or Saudi Arabian girls - an advantage perhaps that stresses our belonging in the Western cultural club. In Israeli eyes, a photo of Refaeli on an airliner makes us more American and Western.

"But it is doubtful whether this message is being received on the other side," Benn concludes. "No Russian model softens the Putin regime's aggressive image in the West; no Venezuelan beauty queen transforms Hugo Chavez into a liberal and democrat. Refaeli deserves credit for her personal success, and the branding project needs to continue, but they will not solve Israel's public-relations problem. Whoever wants to belong to the West needs to behave accordingly, or pay the price."

 (Bottom photo: Getty Images/AFP/EmmanuelDunand)