Following weeks of uncertainty over whether and in what format he would address the campus, former President Jimmy Carter spoke for about 20 minutes before answering preselected questions from nine students in a packed Shapiro Gymnasium Tuesday.Assistant Dean of Student Life Alwina Bennett, who worked on the logistics of the Carter event, estimated its total cost to the University to be "somewhere between $75,000 and $100,000."

Carter, whose speech defended the ideas presented in his recent book, was rebutted almost immediately by Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz in an event that capped about a month of controversy over the circumstances of their visits and the contents of Carter's controversial book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

"My bottom line was that the Palestinians are horribly treated, and their treatment is not known or minimally known in the United States," he said of his book. "I chose that title knowing that it would be provocative."

But, Carter acknowledged, the title may have been counterproductive to initiating peaceful dialogue.

"I realize this has caused great concern in the Jewish community," he said, emphasizing that he believes the word "apartheid" applies only to the conditions in the Palestinian territories and not in Israel proper.

The widespread criticism of his book did not compare to snubs he received on his many campaign trails, Carter said to the crowd of about 1,700.

"This is the first time I've ever been called a liar, a bigot, an anti-Semite, a coward and a plagiarist. This has hurt me," Carter explained.

Still, in his first major address on the book, Carter did not respond directly to the criticisms Dershowitz had made against his book. But he seemed to embrace the controversy leading up to his visit, joking that "I didn't think that Brandeis needed a Harvard professor to tell you how to" hold constructive dialogue.

The former President called his invitation to speak at Brandeis "the most exciting invitation I've ever received," except for the invitation from Congress to deliver his inaugural address. Although most of the questions he was asked were critical, the audience greeted his answers with applause, and gave him a standing ovation upon both entrance and exit.

Carter described his first-hand observations of the hardships faced by Palestinians living in the West Bank, accusing Israel of running the Palestinian Territories in a manner analogous to the state-sponsored system of segregation between blacks and whites in South Africa during the mid-20th century.

"The forced separation and domination of Arabs by Israelis," he said, is exemplified by the "dividing wall" that separates Israel from the Palestinian territories, the hundreds of checkpoints Palestinians are forced to cross to enter into Israel and the "spider web" of roads that connect the Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank.

"Palestinians are not permitted to get on those roads or even to cross some of them," Carter said. "All this makes the lives of Palestinians almost intolerable."

Carter expressed his hope for peace, arguing that Israel needs to withdraw completely from the West Bank and return to its 1967 borders.

Carter spoke of his personal stake in Israel's security that started at the age of three when he was taught as an evangelical Christian to "protect the chosen people."

In 1978, Carter helped negotiate the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, which established diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Since then, however, the peace process has regressed, he said.

"I left office believing Israel would soon realize its dream of peace with its neighbors," he said. "The current policies are leading toward an immoral outcome . and not bringing peace to the state of Israel."

Yet, he voiced optimism for the Middle East's future, an attitude he said he learned from his experience negotiating the agreement between Israel and Egypt.

"The Jordanians want peace, the Egyptians want peace, the Palestinians want peace, the Israelis want peace," and it is only "a minority of Israelis" who are the "driving force" of Palestinian persecution, he said.

Carter called on the University to send a group of faculty and students to the Palestinian territories to observe the situation first-hand.

"My suggestion is that you form a delegation of 10 people and go to the West Bank, and just spend three days," he said. "You decide if what I said is accurate. I would guess that you would be amazed at what the impact of your report would have in this nation, on members of Congress and on Israel."

The former President, the first to speak at Brandeis since Harry Truman gave the commencement address in 1957, had rejected a suggestion by the University last month that he debate the points made in his book against Dershowitz, an outspoken defender of Israel.

Instead, Carter accepted an invitation from a committee of students and faculty two weeks ago to take the podium alone. Dershowitz, who previously called Carter a "coward" for refusing to debate him, watched Carter's speech on a closed-circuit television in the Bernstein administrative building before he took the same stage about 30 minutes later.

In response to Adam Schwartzbaum's '07 question about a passage in his book that Schwartzbaum said seemed to justify the use of terrorism as a political strategy, Carter said the sentence was worded in "a stupid way" and that it would be removed from future editions of his book.

"I apologize for the wording of that sentence," he said. "It was a mistake on my part and it is being corrected."

Answering a much-anticipated question, Carter acknowledged that his Atlanta-based Carter Center had accepted donations from Saudi Arabia. But, he said, all money he is given, whether from donors or as awards, is sent to the Center, whose accounting is heavily scrutinized.

"I receive no benefit at all from those sources, and never will."

Carter sharply criticized the media's lack of coverage of Palestinian issues and the absence of a healthy debate in the United States regarding Israel's policies.

"There had been a lack of concerted effort to bring peace to America's ally in the Middle East: Israel," he said. "Any debate is still practically nonexistent within the U.S. Congress."

Carter called on the United State's partners in the "quartet", the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, to "take some responsibility from the U.S.'s shoulders." Greater involvement by other groups in peace negotiations will help move the process along, he said.

"No longer does the United States have to be the sole negotiator," he said.

Prof. Mari Fitzduff, the director of the master's program in intercommunal coexistence who moderated the event, said that 178 questions for Carter submitted online were condensed into 12 sections. Carter had not seen the selected questions prior to the event, Fitzduff said.

Ido Givon '07, who asked Carter about Israel's security needs, said that as a former soldier in the Israeli army, he believes Carter's assessment of the conflict is incorrect.

"Calling the situation an apartheid is completely false," Givon said, adding that Carter's answers to students' questions seemed disingenuous. "As an experienced politician, he knew exactly what to say."

Students and faculty said having Carter speak was a great honor for the University, one that may spark change in the nature of the campus's discussion on the Mideast conflict.

"I am very, very proud of our students," said Stephen Kay, the chair of the Board of Trustees, of the questions students asked of Carter. While Kay said he doesn't "happen to agree with [Carter] at all," he praised the invitations of both Dershowitz and Carter as evidence of the strong and open intellectual environment at Brandeis.

Prof. David Hackett Fischer (HIST), who introduced Carter, encouraged everyone to read his book. "It's a quick read and it took me by surprise," he said. "It's a very serious book; it's a very thoughtful book."

John Hose, University President Jehuda Reinharz's Assistant, said Reinharz could not attend the events Tuesday because he was out of town on a previously scheduled fundraising trip. Reinharz wrote to Carter to find out if the former president could visit on another date, but Carter was unavailable on the dates Reinharz suggested, Hose said.

Miles said the Shapiro gym was the largest campus venue that could be used during the week to host the event because of city restrictions.

-Miranda Neubauer and Dan Hirschhorn contributed reporting.