It seems Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz will get the last word, after all.Ending a month-long back-and-forth on a possible appearance with former President Jimmy Carter, Dershowitz accepted an invitation sent Wednesday by a committee of faculty and students to appear following today's 4:30 p.m. talk by the former president, a visit that has already garnered national media attention. Dershowitz's presentation will begin 30 minutes after Carter's concludes and will follow the same model as Carter's, with a short speech followed by a question-and-answer period.

Carter, who accepted an invitation from a separate committee after almost two months of discussions, will speak to a capacity audience in Gosman Sports and Convocation Center on his recent controversial book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which frames Israel as running an apartheid state whose population endures oppresssion rivaling that of blacks in South Africa in the mid-20th century.

"Carter's book has a lot of imbalances in it," said Asher Tanenbaum '08, a member of the committee that invited Dershowitz. "I think it's good for people to hear Dershowitz speak [after Carter]."

The group that invited Carter to Brandeis has picked 15 questions from a pool of nearly 100, said Kevin Montgomery '07, one of the group's members. Though he would not release the questions, he said they revolve around issues from Carter's book, his alleged ties to Saudi Arabian money and the risk taken by those who stand for unpopular views. All submitted questions will be posted Wednesday at carterquestion.com.

Stuart Eizenstat, a Brandeis trustee and friend of Carter, first put forward the idea that Dershowitz visit in conjunction with the former president.

However, Carter told the Justice last week he was not interested in an exchange with Dershowitz, an outspoken defender of Israel and vehement critic of Carter and his book. The invitation that Carter eventually accepted did not include any plans for Dershowitz to appear.

But Jonathan Krisch '07, then a features editor for The Hoot, a student newspaper, sent an invitation to Dershowitz on behalf of the paper. Dershowitz told the Justice last week that Montgomery, a member of The Hoot's editorial board, had told him in a phone conversation that "The Hoot arranged for Carter's visit, and now The Hoot is inviting you."

Montgomery denied making such a claim, and said The Hoot would revoke the invitation, which he said was extended without consulting its editorial board.

Krisch, a member of the committee that invited Dershowitz, refused to comment on his original invitation, stressing that "the only organization bringing Dershowitz is this committee." He said he has resigned from his position at The Hoot.

Tanenbaum, another member of the committee, said the group's members had been communicating unofficially with each other during the last week of the winter vacation, when David Kuperstein '08, also a member of the committee, first made contact with Dershowitz.

The committee is not paying any fee for Dershowitz's appearance, Tanenbaum said.

Montgomery said the Carter committee had "asked for [the event] to be held in a different location and not be done 15 minutes after Carter got offstage" to make clear that the events were separate.

The committee did not want to "look like we were insulting the President by bringing Dershowitz on the same stage," he said, adding that his group supported Dershowitz's visit because it will stimulate debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Although Dershowitz is scheduled to appear in the gym 30 minutes after Carter finishes his program, Lorna Miles, the senior vice president for communications and a frequent spokesperson for the University, said the start time of Dershowitz's talk would depend on the "practicalities of moving people out and moving people in" to the gym after Carter's talk. She said the University would provide security for Dershowitz but not on the same scale as the measures dictated by the Secret Service for Carter's visit. John Hose, executive assistant to the University President, said the resources needed to facilitate Carter's appearance would cost the University "tens of thousands of dollars," though he did not give specific figures.

Prof. Gordie Fellman (SOC), a member of the committee bringing Carter, said "Dershowitz had the right to come," but added that he fears outside media will portray the event as a "slugfest." That, he said, could "diminish the significance of Jimmy Carter, President of the United States, choosing [to speak at] Brandeis."

Fellman, who said he had strongly opposed the original debate proposal, also said he opposes the timing of the Dershowitz event because he thinks the audience should "digest" what Carter says for a few days.

He said he also worries that issues will get lost in what has become a "semi-debate format," in which the speaker students support matters more than what is being discussed.

Prof. Jonathan Sarna (NEJS), a leading scholar of American Judaism and a member of the Dershowitz committee, said he was very disappointed that there will be no debate or "intellectual give-and-take" between Carter and Dershowitz. Although he called the current plan "the next best thing," he criticized the selection of questions for Carter before the event as a "very strange procedure for a university" and noted that Dershowitz had agreed to respond to questions from the audience.

Prof. Jeffrey Abramson (POL) will introduce Dershowitz, and Prof. Jacob Cohen (AMST) will moderate the event, according to a University press release. Both events will be broadcast live online at go.brandeis.edu/live.

University officials said University President Jehuda Reinharz will be in Florida for fund-raising trip and will be unable to attend the event.



-Michael Grillo and Dan Hirschhorn contributed reporting.