Olmert Didn't Know?

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's speech before a joint session of the American Congress last Wednesday included this line: " Peace with Egypt became possible only after President Anwar Sadat came to Knesset and declared no more war, no more bloodshed." But Sadat said nothing of the sort in the Knesset.

What the Egyptian president did say was:

"Ring the bells for your sons. Tell them that those wars were the last of wars and the end of sorrows."

It was only at a press conference on November 21 that he said something similar: " the two slogans that I want everyone to say are: 'Let us have no war after October' and 'Let us agree upon security'."

The phrase Olmert highlighted was authored by Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin. In a broadcast to the Egyptian people on November 11, 1977, Begin said: "No more wars, no more bloodshed, and no more threats" and he repeated it in his Knesset speech the next week.

At the Nov. 21 press conference Begin stated: "No more war, no more bloodshed, no more attacks…let us give a silent oath, one to another: No more war, no more bloodshed, no more threats."

At the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in December 1978 Begin said; " "No more war, no more bloodshed” and the March 1979 White House Lawn signing ceremony Begin declared: "No more war, no more bereavement, no more bloodshed”.

Ehud Olmert didn't know all of this?

Ah, someone else didn't:-

Author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel helped write the speech that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will give to a joint session of Congress Wednesday.

Wiesel received a draft of the speech last week in order to add to it and make comments.

Wiesel joined former prime minister Ariel Sharon on the March of the Living at Auschwitz last year, and the two held a long conversation during the trip.

Olmert spent hours working on his speech, poring over drafts written by two Foreign Ministry officials, including attorney Daniel Taub of the Law Division. Olmert's chief of staff, Yoram Turbowicz, and his foreign policy adviser, Shalom Turjeman, were in charge of the final version.