This week, Representative John Curtis (R-UT), member of the House Foreign Affairs Asia, the Pacific and Nonproliferation Subcommittee, spoke at the Foreign Affairs hearing on “The State Department’s Foreign Policy Strategy and FY20 Budget Request.”

The congressman discussed the recent attacks in Israel and efforts from the US to strengthen and secure Israel with United States Department of State Secretary Michael R. Pompeo. Rep. Curtis also presented a 40 year newspaper clipping he has kept from the signing of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty.

“[The newspaper] hangs in my office as a reminder of the many lessons that came out of [the peace treaty]. Among other things: we can do what seems nearly impossible,” said Curtis. “We can bring these groups together that seem so far apart. We can be bipartisan in the way that we approach this. I worry that our relationship with Israel is becoming a partisan issue and I hope that it’s not; our success depends on being bipartisan.”

Background

40 years ago this week, Rep. Curtis was living in Jerusalem studying with the BYU Jerusalem Center when the Israel-Egypt peace treaty was signed in Washington. He grabbed a copy of the Jerusalem Post’s coverage of the historic pact (click here for more) and has held onto the newspaper for over four decades as reminder that seemingly impossible peace is obtainable.

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