Former President Jimmy Carter helped Illinois College in Jacksonville launch a new program Tuesday that will focus on the Middle East.
Carter told the crowd of over 2,000 about his lifetime work of fostering human rights at home and abroad. Carter says he hopes President Barack Obama will soon work on restarting peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
"If necessary I think that there should be a United Nations contingency there, particularly including American troops, and this is something I did when I had the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt - we put American troops and others in the Sinai Desert to make sure that peace prevailed."
Carter says a two-state solution for the countries is best.
He also spoke about his latest book which calls attention to discrimination and abuse of women. Carter says violence against women is one of the most important human rights issues of our time.