WWW- The Israeli bikini babe whose racy picture has set tongues wagging from Tel Aviv to Turtle Bay insisted yesterday that she was just using her assets to improve Israel’s war-torn image and didn’t intend to offend anyone.

The stunning former Miss Israel and model, Gal Gadot, said she is proud of her sexy photograph – part of a new tourism campaign touted by the Israeli Consulate that show cases a host of scantily clad Hebrew hotties.

“Obviously, I don’t think it’s pornographic, or I wouldn’t have done it,” said Gadot, 22, who’s starting law school in the fall.

She added, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Israel is a democracy and that’s what it’s all about.”

Her picture appeared on an official invitation sent out by the consulate in New York. It touched off an uproar in Israel, where several female politicians denounced it as the wrong way to promote the Jewish state.

The invite was for a Maxim magazine party last night at Chelsea hotspot Marquee to hype its July issue showcasing “Women of the Israeli Defense Forces.”

“I’m not involved in politics,” said the 5-foot-9 beauty. “I leave that to the politicians.”

Israeli Consul-General Arye Mekel tried to diffuse the situation.

“This is the first time we used the word ‘shoot’ in connection to Israel and we’re not talking about killing people,” Mekel quipped about the photo shoot.

The Maxim article will also highlight the country’s thumping nightlife, he said.

But not everyone is thrilled.

Some pols have expressed outrage and former Consul-General Colette Avital called the campaign “pornographic.”

“She expressed her point of view to me,” Mekel said. “I responded. It’s a legitimate disagreement.”