Carter at Brandeis: Everyone Gets a Turn, Except Maybe Demme

Jimmy Carter spoke at Brandeis last night about his controversial book Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid, and the event was a civilized discussion instead of a much-feared shouting match among Carter, Alan Dershowitz, and Brandeis students.

Keeping it civilized was a challenge. Brandeis screened questions that students asked of Carter, and the organizers had to keep Carter and Dershowitz in separate pens: "Dershowitz was kept out of the gym during the speech, but allowed to give a rebuttal after Carter left." Dershowitz instead watched Carter on closed-circuit television.

The Brandeis University student newspaper covers the event from many angles and notes how the students appeared to take in both sides of the debate: "Although most of the questions [Carter] was asked were critical, the audience largely greeted his answers with applause, and gave him a standing ovation on both entrance and exit."

The student newspaper also noted that the campus' response to the much-hyped speech was "in a word, underwhelming." It's sad that the two weren't able to talk together in a civil manner, but at least the students had the chance to hear both sides, and it looks like all parties involved have gone off to think about issues in the Middle East a little more.

And did Jonathan Demme get in to film the speech? Anyone know?