When I was elected President nobody asked me to negotiate between Israel and Egypt. It was not even a question raised in my campaign. But I felt that one of the reasons that I was elected President was to try to bring peace to the Holy Land.

Carter frames Middle East peacemaking as a self-imposed moral obligation rather than a campaign mandate. The quote underscores a view of presidential leadership in which electoral victory confers not only authority to execute promised policies but also responsibility to pursue urgent global goods—here, peace between Israel and Egypt and stability in the biblically resonant “Holy Land.” It also hints at the political risk of acting beyond explicit voter expectations, suggesting that Carter understood the initiative as rooted in conscience and a broader sense of providential purpose. In this reading, the statement helps explain his willingness to invest personal time and political capital in high-stakes diplomacy that culminated in the Camp David process.