Haaretz
Shvat 5, 5767
Former U.S. President Jimmy
Carter defended on Tuesday defended his controversial book on Israel's
treatment of Palestinians, telling students at Brandeis University that
his goal was to revive Middle East peace talks.
Carter also told
students that rge attacks on his character following the release of his
book had hurt him and his family.
Jewish groups have expressed
outrage at "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," arguing that its comparison
of Israel's treatment of Palestinians with South Africa's reviled
apartheid system of racial segregation could undermine perceptions of
Israel's legitimacy.
Brandeis, in the Boston suburb of Waltham, is
a secular university founded by American Jewish leaders, and about half of
its 5,300 students are Jewish. The school is named after Louis Brandeis,
the first Jew on the Supreme Court and a robust defender of the right to
free speech.
The former United States president, in his first
direct address to Jewish Americans on his book, said the title referred to
human rights in the Palestinian territories, not in Israel.
He said
the word "apartheid" was intended to provoke debate on the rights of
Palestinians, who he said were being treated unfairly by Israel.
He
said he never asserted that Jewish money was controlling the U.S. media,
as some critics have charged, but only that the pro-Israel lobby was
strong.
"I've been hurt and so has my family by some of the
reaction," Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, told about 1,700
students at the university.
"I've been through political campaigns
for state senator, governor and president, and I've been stigmatized and
condemned by my political opponents. But this is the first time that I
have ever been called a liar. And a bigot and an anti-Semite and a coward,
and a plagiarist. This is hurtful," he said.
"I can take it," he
added, joking that he could handle the attacks because as a former U.S.
president he still had Secret Service protection.
Carter, 82, has
been dogged by protests during a promotional tour. In the book, Carter
traces the history of the Middle East from the 19th century to the present
via the Camp David Accords in 1978, a year into his presidency.
He
apologized for a passage that can be interpreted as supporting suicide
bombings as a negotiating tactic, saying it was a "mistake" and would be
removed from future editions.
But he said a full Israeli withdrawal
from Palestinian territories was crucial for lasting peace.
The
university originally invited Carter on the condition that he debate
lawyer and Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, a critic of the
book.
But Carter said he would only visit the campus without
conditions. He later accepted an invitation from a committee of students
and faculty to speak without taking part in a debate.
The event
was tightly controlled and closed to the public, preventing Dershowitz,
one of Carter's more scathing critics, from openly questioning
him.
Dershowitz wanted to ask Carter why he had accepted money from
Saudi Arabia and why the Carter Center, an Atlanta-based humanitarian
organization, had criticized Israel while not looking into human rights
abuses in Saudi Arabia.
Instead, a student asked those
questions.
Carter responded in part by saying all donations were
audited with Arab nations contributing a tiny fraction with most of the
money going to humanitarian programs.
About 60 protesters,
detractors and supporters, gathered outside, some holding Israeli or
Palestinian signs and flags.
"We support what Jimmy Carter is
saying," said Alan Meyers, 56, a Jewish doctor from Boston. "We feel that
there is not enough attention being paid to dissenting Jewish voices in
the United States."
Nearby, Israeli-American Gilend Ini, 29, handed
out fliers identifying five portions of Carter's book that he said
contained falsehoods. "We're trying to let the public know that much of
what he said in his book was factually incorrect information."
In
preparation for Carter's appearance, metal barricades were erected along
the road leading to the athletic center, where Carter was to speak, and
people entering the place had to go through a metal detector.
But
a few hours before the appearance, only about two dozen demonstrators
showed up, and most were carrying signs with a pro-Palestinian view. Among
them: "Closing our eyes to injustice is not a Jewish value" and "Support
Jimmy Carter. End the occupation now."
Carter's book has been
criticized by some Jewish leaders as riddled with inaccuracies and
distortions. Some have complained that it appears to equate South Africa's
former apartheid system of racial segregation with Israeli treatment of
the Palestinians.
Fifteen questions were selected ahead of time
from a list of least 120 by the committee that invited Carter, according
to the university.
"The whole idea was that everyone would benefit
if there is a more focused way of getting questions to the president, not
having 1,700 people raise their hands to ask questions," said university
spokesman Dennis Nealon.
Critics were particularly frustrated that
Dershowitz was not allowed to debate Carter. "It's puzzling because he
said that he wants to have a discussion of his book and then refused to
appear with Professor Dershowitz," said retired Brandeis history professor
Morton Keller.
Gordon Fellman, a sociology professor and a member
of the committee that arranged the visit, said Dershowitz is neither a
student nor faculty member at Brandeis and therefore "he can't get in -
and it's not anti-Dershowitz.