Daniel Lubetzky

People should never confuse freedom of expression with the freedom not to have to listen or lend credence to bad people, which is as fundamental a freedom as any.

Giving Ahmadinejad the floor at Columbia buttressed him and enhanced him not just globally, but, more dangerously, also at the local level in Iran, where many more moderate figures want to expose and highlight the damage that he has caused to the Iranian people.  Now the Iranian News Agency will edit the portions of the Columbia speech where he got applause (!) and will use this to advance its propaganda.  You see, even some Americans are starting to welcome and respect Ahmadinejad’s message, they will say.

For me the best way to highlight the idiocy of having propped up totalitarian, misogynistic, fatalistic and apocalyptic tyrants like Ahmadinejad by giving him the mantle of legitimacy that came with the Columbia invitation, is to point to how nobody would argue that we should be promoting Hitler’s ideology as worthy of public debate.  Would we really want to give Hitler a podium from which to spew his genocidal hatred?

Alas, Columbia seems lost enough to say it would have supported this too!

"If Hitler were in the United States and wanted a platform from which to speak, he would have plenty of platforms to speak in the United States," said John Coatsworth, dean of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, in an interview with Fox News. "If he were willing to engage in debate and a discussion to be challenged by Columbia students and faculty, we would certainly invite him." New York Sun

I reject reactionary hawkish right wing extremists as much as reactionary left wing extremists.  But here I guess they are right to wonder whether we have lost our moral compass.

The only thing more upsetting than giving Ahmadinejad the floor at Columbia University to spew hatred and idiocy, was hearing lame questions from President Bollinger to him.

As anyone could have predicted, Ahmadinejad ignored any questions and just did whatever he wanted with the platform.

Bollinger ran out of steam and out of credit with the audience with his early attacks on Ahmadinejad, which he should have saved for a rebuttal.  Instead, by the time he got to ask Ahmadinejad questions, these had no spine or guts, and no depth.

And why did the audience applaud this monster? Partly again because Bollinger created empathy for Ahmadinejad through his initial harsh criticism of Ahmadinejad, ahead of Ahmadinejad speaking, rather than saving it for when it was needed and advisable, which was when he needed to counter and reject Ahmadinejad.

Alas, Bollinger clearly did not know how to debate him.  And he decided instead to cover his rear by first giving the ‘disclaimer-to-having-invited-Ahmadinejad-to-speak’ speech.  I am sure he will parade that opening statement to all of the school’s donors.  But the fact is that at the actual event, Bollinger failed miserably.

At one point he asked Ahmadinejad if his government sought to destroy Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, and Ahmadinejad avoided answering the question.  When Bollinger asked him to answer with a simple Yes or No, Ahmadinejad retorted by asking if the tragedy of the Palestinian people was one that needed the immediate attention of the world community.  Bollinger said yes.  But then instead of asking Ahmadinejad to now answer himself, he just let him go.

Like the letter he once wrote to Bush, Ahmadinejad is a scary psychopath.  He complained about lack of freedom in America, without even hesitating at the irony of his comments, as the President of one of the most repressive and totalitarian regimes in the world.

"In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like you have in your country," said Ahmadinejad.  It is embarrassing that this bigoted monster is given a platform!

Each time Ahmadinejad wrapped himself around the Palestinian cause, but Ahmadinejad causes more pain to the Palestinian people than anyone else.  His manipulation of the Palestinian people has caused so many setbacks to the Palestinian cause.  Because of his proxy attacks through Hezbollah and the militant wing of Hamas, the plan to evacuate Israeli settlements from the West Bank (a plan on which Israeli Prime Minister Olmert was elected by the Israeli people) was derailed. 

The Palestinian leadership is fed up with Ahmadinejad trying to hijack their cause for his manipulative purposes, which only cloud a legitimate cause with his apocalyptic agendas and hegemonic ambitions.  Saeb Erakat point blank asked the Iranian leadership to "stop" trying to help the Palestinian cause and to not meddle in Palestinian affairs. 

Ahmadinejad at one point complained that his host should have been kinder, as in Iran their culture would have mandated more cordial treatment of their guests.  If Bollinger had been better prepared, he could have used this opportunity to mention that Ahmadinejad has jailed, tortured and killed his opponents, and that the "courtesy" he most recently extended to an American scholar trying to help build bridges between Iran and the US was to incarcerate her for many months.

The Huffington Post published an article I wrote about the imperative of mobilizing to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all, before it’s too late and before Ahmadinejad turns it into a truly intractable conflict.

So Columbia University in its infinite wisdom has deemed it appropriate to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at its campus.  Never mind this man has denied the holocaust, and gone on record stating that he would not mind if half of Iran was destroyed if on the way this enabled him to wipe Israel off the map.  Never mind that this man is feverishly pursuing nuclear weapons. Never mind that he is intent on undermining Iraqi reconciliation efforts or Arab-Israeli peace. Never mind that he is a messianic apocalyptic and fatalistic believer that accelerating the coming of the 12th Imam can be brought about through Armageddon. Columbia will give him the stage, confusing freedom of speech with good judgment. 

Freedom of Speech is a vital strength of our American system, one I would fight for any time.  Freedom of speech means you should not stop anyone from the liberty to express themselves.  But it should not mean giving the megaphone to evil bigots.  There is nothing sensible about this dumb decision.

That said, if I can make it there, I will want to ask Ahmadinejad:

How come every major conflagration between Israelis and Arabs in 2006 took place a couple days before Iran was being referred to an international body?

How come Nasrallah’s unprovoked incursion and attacks in the North of Israel happened four days before Iran’s nuclear efforts were scheduled to be discussed at the UN Security Council?  Does it have anything to do with Iran’s wholly funding of Hezbollah?

How come the hijacking of Gilad Shalit in Gaza by the militant wing of Hamas – which derailed the Olmert-Abbas prisoner release they had announced they were working on, and which derailed the Abbas-Haniyeh national unity government discussions – took place a couple days before Iran’s intransigence against nuclear inspections and bans was scheduled to be discussed at the IAEA?  Does the fact that Khaled Maashal gets his funding from Iran have anything to do?