Later today, President Carter will bring his message — that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is tantamount to South African apartheid regime’s treatment of blacks — to the preeminent non-sectarian Jewish university in America, Brandeis. I write about the visit in my column in The New York Sun. There is also a personal angle about Brandeis you can read in the piece.
I don’t know what, if anything, Brandeis could have done to block this media appearance. But for Carter what happens at the venue doesn’t matter. The appearance alone will allow him to “kasher” his book.
For the piece, I spoke to Stephen Flatow whose daughter, Alisa, was a Brandeis student killed in a terrorist attack in 1995. Flatow says if he were in attendance today, he’d ask Carter about his validation of Palestinian violence. Flatow, along with Alan Dershowitz and pro-Carter film-maker Jonathan Demme won’t be there later today; Brandeis has limited attendance to members of the current university community.
