Following is an excerpt of President Carter’s address to the joint session of Congress last night:
It has been more than 2000 years since there was peace between Egypt and a free Jewish nation. If our present expectations are realized, this year we shall see such peace.
I would like to give tribute to the two men who have made this impossible dream now become a real possibility–the two great national leaders with whom I have met for the last two weeks at Camp David–President Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister Menachem Begin. At Camp David we sought a peace which is not only of vital importance to their own two nations, but to all the people of the Middle East, to all the people of the United States–indeed, to the rest of the world as well.
The world prayed for the success of our efforts and those prayers have been answered….
None of us should underestimate the historic importance of what has been done. This is the first time that an Arab and an Israeli leader have signed a comprehensive framework for peace. It contains the seeds of a time when the Middle East with all its vast potential, may be a land of human richness and fulfillment, rather than of bitterness and conflict…
For many years, the Middle East has been a textbook for pessimism, a demonstration that diplomatic ingenuity was no match for intractable human conflicts. Today we are privileged to see the chance for one of the bright moments in human history–a chance that these two brave leaders found within themselves the willingness to work together to seek a lasting peace; for that, I hope you will share my prayer of thanks and my hope that the promise of this moment shall be fully realized….
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