Bush Honors Holocaust Victims

President visits Yad Vashem before leaving Israel for Kuwait

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 11, 2008 9:06 AM CST

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Bush Honors Holocaust Victims — Israel's President Shimon Peres, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, second left, look on as U.S. President George W. Bush speaks after signing the guest book at the close of his visit in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, Jerusalem, Friday, Jan. 11, 2008. President Bush had tears in his eyes... (Associated Press)

A yarmulke-wearing George Bush early today visited Israeli Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, which he called "a sobering reminder that evil exists." Bush, accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres, rekindled the eternal flame and laid a wreath next to the names of victims of the death camps. Bush later visited the hilltop where the Bible says Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount and intoned: "Blessed are the peacemakers."

Before leaving for Kuwait, the president's next stop in his Middle East trip, he told Olmert and Peres: "Now's the time to make difficult choices." Yesterday during a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Bush called for an end to the "occupation" of Palestinian lands taken after 1967 and said he hoped for a peace deal within the year. (More George W. Bush stories.)

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