Folks - Some more interesting media coverage on Carter and the book, if you haven't already read it. This one involving Alan Dershowitz and Brandeis Univeristy. - http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/12/15/carter_book_wont_stir_brandeis_debate/ Carter book won't stir Brandeis debate Ex-president was to outline view on Palestinians By Farah Stockman and Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff | December 15, 2006 It seemed like a good idea at the time: Have former president Jimmy Carter talk about his controversial new book "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid" at Brandeis University But the idea ended, as many things on Carter's tumultuous nationwide book tour have, in disagreement and controversy. Brandeis president Jehuda Reinharz said he agreed with a trustee's suggestion to invite Carter last month, if Carter were willing to debate one of his most outspoken critics, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz. Carter, president from 1977-1981, vehemently rejected the idea. To Carter, the episode was proof that many in the United States were unwilling to hear an alternative view on what he says is the most taboo foreign-policy issue in the United States, Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory. But others say it shows that Carter himself is unwilling to debate his own best-selling book, which has sparked allegations of errors and omissions, charges of anti-Israel bias, and protests at his book signings. "President Carter said he wrote the book because he wanted to encourage more debate; then why won't he debate?" Dershowitz said. Carter, who brokered the 1978 Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt and who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, has said the goal of the book, including its provocative title, is to provoke dialogue and action. "There is no debate in America about anything that would be critical of Israel," he said in an interview Wednesday night. But a furor has erupted because of the use of the word apartheid, which seems to equate the oppression of Palestinians with that endured by black South Africans under that country's now-defunct system of state-mandated racial segregation. Rabbi Marvin Heir, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights organization, said Carter "should be ashamed of himself." And Kenneth W. Stein, one of Carter's former aides, dropped his association with the Carter Center in Atlanta, a human rights organization founded by the former president and his wife Rosalynn. But Carter said: "Apartheid is the forced separation of two peoples in the same area and the forced subjugation of one to the other. No one can argue that that is not the situation in the Palestinian territories right now." Others have praised the 39th president for raising important questions about the cost of the United States' unwavering support for Israel. His book tour is being chronicled by the same producer who made an "An Inconvenient Truth," which focused on global warming and featured Al Gore. The film about Carter will be titled "He Comes in Peace." Brandeis, a nonsectarian university founded by American Jews, has also been at the center of controversy over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In May, the university removed an exhibit featuring art by Palestinian children, saying it was one-sided The university was criticized in January for giving a research fellowship to a prominent Palestinian pollster. The effort to bring Carter to Brandeis began Nov. 14, when computer science professor Harry Mairson, chairman of the Faculty Senate, sent Carter a letter asking whether he would be interested in coming to talk. Mairson called the letter a feeler, not an invitation. Carter said he was inclined to say yes and would have done the lecture for free, as long as Brandeis sent a plane to pick him up at his home in Georgia. "I thought it would be a good idea to go to a campus that had a lot of Jewish students and get a lot questions," he said. But before accepting, he called longtime friend and former adviser Stuart Eizenstat, a member of Brandeis's Board of Trustees, for advice. Eizenstat said he advised Carter not to accept because he did not know whether the professor had an agenda. A member of Carter's staff later asked whether Reinharz could extend an invitation, instead, so Eizenstat said he approached Reinharz with an idea: invite Carter to debate Dershowitz, who had recently reviewed Carter's book and who had previously expressed a desire to debate Carter several times. A debate "would make this a real academic exercise," Eizenstat said. ". . . The president of the university is not in the business of inviting someone, even a former president, for a book tour." Reinharz thought the debate was "a terrific idea," he said in a telephone interview. Carter, however, was stunned by the proposal. "I don't want to have a conversation even indirectly with Dershowitz," Carter said. "There is no need to for me to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine." Carter still could have accepted an invitation from a faculty member, Reinharz said. "President Carter -- and indeed anyone -- is welcome to come on the campus of Brandeis University to talk about anything under the sun," he said. Mairson received a written reply, dated Nov. 17, from Carter's appointment secretary, saying that he would not visit the campus.