Samuel Lewis, ending an eight year term as U.S. Ambassador to Israel, expressed optimism here last night over the “stirrings of peace” in the region. “The ice floes in the Middle East are beginning to crack,” the veteran diplomat told 360 guests attending a farewell dinner given in his honor by the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI) at Kfar Hamaccabia.
“The rumblings (of peace) in the distance scare some people, but it is the harbinger of summer,” Lewis said. The American envoy, who began his tour of duty here in 1977, the year of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem, said “the peace process has been the high point of my life.”
Reviewing his tenure as Ambassador, he said his greatest satisfaction was to have participated in the peace process between Israel and Egypt and his greatest dismay was failing to prevent the war in Lebanon.
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