Samuel Lewis, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel since 1977, ended his eight year tour of duty at a gala party given him and his wife Sally Lewis by Premier Shimon Peres and his wife, Sonia Peres at the Prime Minister’s residence here last night.
To most Israelis, the Lewis’s were the most dearly beloved couple of the foreign diplomatic corps and almost the entire Cabinet and top government officials attended the buffet supper in their honor, the last in a long series of farewell events. Only two ministers were absent. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a close friend of Lewis, is abroad. Minister of Commerce and Industry Ariel Sharon, who has publicly blamed Lewis for the failure of U.S. policy in Lebanon, stayed away.
As a departing gift, Peres gave Sam and Sally Lewis a huge album devoted to the late David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel. Peres wrote the text. The accompanying art was by the Israeli artist, Yaacov Agam.
Earlier yesterday, Lewis participated in a tennis match between the diplomatic corps and an Israel Foreign Ministry team. It was his last activity as a diplomat in Israel. Lewis returns to the U.S. this week to take up a teaching post at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
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