ADL, ZOA, McCain, Romney, and the WSJ All Rip Columbia on Ahmadinejad
[I happen to favor the Ahmadinejad visit to Columbia as a step towards talking and away from war. But one can see the politics at work by the following lobbying groups and politicians seeking favor with same. I have earlier posted an item pointing to the 1953 regime change from democracy to the brutal dictatorship of the Shah engineered by British and American oil via our CIA in 1953 -- never mentioned to my knowledge by our media now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
I don't support the Islamic radicalism operative in Iran now, but by all reports the younger ones (a majority there) are restless with the current domination by the mullahs and presumably ready to respond to American students criticizing Ahmadinejad. I can imagine nothing more stupid than such a forum being aborted -- it is an opportunity to reach the majority in Iran and hopefully to avoid a disastrous new war. Ed Kent]
............................
http://www.adl.org/
ADL Calls On Columbia University To Rescind Invitation To Iranian President Ahmadinejad
New York, NY, September 20, 2007 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called on Columbia University to reconsider its decision to host Iran's president at a question and answer session with faculty and students. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak September 24 at a forum sponsored by the university's School of International and Public Affairs.
A similar invitation to Ahmadinejad was revoked last year by Columbia President Lee Bollinger.
"It is inappropriate and a perversion of the concept of freedom of speech," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "Columbia University has no moral imperative, no legal imperative, no social imperative to give Ahmadinejad a platform, which he would not give them in Tehran. Why give him the credibility and the respectability of a major institution of higher learning? What message does that send to the students? This is not what the First Amendment is all about."
In a letter to President Bollinger, ADL said it was "extremely dismayed" by the university's invitation to the Iranian President, who has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel and has made remarks denying the Holocaust, and Bollinger's plans to personally introduce him at the forum. The League noted Iran's support for international terrorism and his country's ambition to acquire nuclear weapons as reasons enough not to provide Ahmadinejad a platform at Columbia.
"Last year, Columbia almost made the same mistake," said Mr. Foxman. "Ahmadinejad didn't get better since then. He's gotten worse."
............................
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http://www.zoa.org/2007/09/zoa_condemns_co_2.htm
September 21, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Morton A. Klein, 212-481-1500
ZOA organizes rally against
Ahmadinejad at Columbia
ZOA Condemns Columbia's Lee Bollinger For Inviting Iran's Ahmadinejad To Address University
September 21, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Morton A. Klein, 212-481-1500
ZOA organizes rally against
Ahmadinejad at Columbia
New York — The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has condemned the decision by Columbia University president, Lee Bollinger, to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has denied the Holocaust, proclaimed that Israel should be wiped off the map and seeks to acquire nuclear weapons, to address the University. Ahmadinejad will appear at Columbia University on Monday, September 24, to deliver an address and participate in a question and answer session with university faculty and students at Columbia. Bollinger said in justifying the invitation to Ahmadinejad that he had insisted that the event would include a session of questions as long as Ahmadinejad’s address and that he personally would issue a number of “sharp challenges” to the Iranian leader on his public denial of the murder of European Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, public call for Israel’s elimination, support for terrorism targeting American personnel and civilians in Iraq, his pursuit of nuclear weapons, suppression of women’s rights and imprisonment of journalists and scholars, including Columbia alumni Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh ( Bollinger statement, September 19, 2007).
Commentary on Bollinger’s invitation to Ahmadinejad:
* Senator John McCain: “Rather than rolling out the red carpet for the leader of a terrorist-sponsoring regime, Columbia should be welcoming the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps back on campus” ( New York Daily News, September 21, 2007); “A man who is directing the maiming and killing of Americans troops should not be given an invitation to speak at an American university” ( Boston Globe, September 21, 2007).
* Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney: It is disappointing “when our academic institutions can’t draw a line between people who bring legitimate differences in perspective versus those who are completely out of touch with reality” (Mitt Romney, New York Daily News, September 21, 2007).
* W all Street Journal: “After promising that he would introduce the president ‘with a series of sharp challenges’ -- including Iran’s ‘reported support’ for international terrorism -- he went on to say that ‘it is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their expression.’ We’re all for free speech and the vigorous exchange of intellectual differences, though we don’t see how Mr. Bollinger can be, given his decision to discriminate against young men and women who seek to make careers in the military. We also don’t quite see how the right to free speech -- a freedom Mr. Ahmadinejad conspicuously denies his own people -- is tantamount to the right to an illustrious pedestal” ( Editorial, Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2007).
* William Kristol, Editor, Weekly Standard: “So at the request of the Iranian government, Columbia University will host the president of a terrorist regime which is right now responsible for the deaths of American soldiers on the field of battle ... One can imagine President Ahmadinejad nervously preparing for President Bollinger’s ‘sharp challenges,’ and wondering whether those challenges will detract from the propaganda victory Bollinger’s invitation has given him. He’s undoubtedly concluded it won’t be a big problem ... In fact, the introduction with “sharp challenges” by Bollinger makes the situation even more of a disgrace. Now there will be the appearance of real dialogue, of Ahmadinejad answering challenges, which further legitimizes the notion that Holocaust denial, say, is a subject of legitimate and reasonable debate” ( William Kristol , Weekly Standard, September 21, 2007).
* New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn: Universities should be “laboratories for a healthy exchange of differing ideas,” but argued such exchanges “should not include state-sponsored terrorism and hate speech. He can say whatever he wants on any streetcorner,” Quinn wrote in a letter to Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, asking that he cancel the event. ( New York Daily News, September 21, 2007).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “We are appalled at and condemn the naivety and superficiality of the justifications that have been advanced by Lee Bollinger for inviting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to address Columbia University. Ahmadinejad is only the most vocal of Muslim leaders calling for Israel’s elimination, meaning calling for the murder of the Jews of Israel, and uttering obscenities like denying the Nazi genocide of Europe’s Jews. What makes Ahmadinejad’s repeated calls for and predictions of Israel’s destruction so ominous is that his regime is proceeding unhindered towards acquiring nuclear weapons, which would allow him to carry out his dream. Ahmadinejad says repeatedly that no one will stop him.
“Against this, the racist bile of David Dukes pales into insignificance, yet Lee Bollinger would be blocking his entry at the front gate if anyone invited this racist to appear at Columbia. However, instead of barring from Columbia the anti-Semitic fulminations of Ahmadinejad, Bollinger invites him to restate them on campus. By inviting Ahmadinejad to address the university, Bollinger is giving a podium and an aura of respectability to this genocidally-minded Holocaust denier. Worse, he is permitting the impression to form that Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial and demands for Israel’s destruction are reasonable points of view for debate and discussion. Are David Dukes’ racist views on African- Americans reasonable subjects for debate at Columbia? Of course not.”
“It is for this reason that the ZOA has strongly supported the House Concurrent Resolution 21, which calls on ‘the United Nations Security Council to charge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the United Nations Charter because of his calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.’ The Resolution ‘condemns ... Ahmadinejad’s offensive remarks, contemptible statements, and reprehensible policies,’ calls on the United Nations Security Council and all Member States to ‘consider measures to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,’ and ‘reaffirms the unwavering strategic partnership between the United States and Israel.’
“How bitterly ironic and how inexcusable that Lee Bollinger issues an invitation to a man who has properly been the subject of a Congressional resolution calling upon the UN to charge him with violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Bollinger’s invitation to Ahmadinejad is an infamous decision that will haunt the reputation of Columbia University and its president for years to come.”
“We urge ZOA members and all people of goodwill to attend the rally at Columbia University to protest the presence of Ahmadinejad organized by ZOA, Hillel, Hasbara, StandWithUs, Amcha, and The David Project. The rally will take place on Monday, September 24, 1:00-3:00 on Columbia University’s campus outside Lerner Hall, 2920 Broadway. Non-Columbia students should assemble at the Columbia Gates at 116th and Broadway, for which a permit has been secured to stage a protest there.”
* * *
The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FindingHumaneJobs
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
I don't support the Islamic radicalism operative in Iran now, but by all reports the younger ones (a majority there) are restless with the current domination by the mullahs and presumably ready to respond to American students criticizing Ahmadinejad. I can imagine nothing more stupid than such a forum being aborted -- it is an opportunity to reach the majority in Iran and hopefully to avoid a disastrous new war. Ed Kent]
............................
http://www.adl.org/
ADL Calls On Columbia University To Rescind Invitation To Iranian President Ahmadinejad
New York, NY, September 20, 2007 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called on Columbia University to reconsider its decision to host Iran's president at a question and answer session with faculty and students. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak September 24 at a forum sponsored by the university's School of International and Public Affairs.
A similar invitation to Ahmadinejad was revoked last year by Columbia President Lee Bollinger.
"It is inappropriate and a perversion of the concept of freedom of speech," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "Columbia University has no moral imperative, no legal imperative, no social imperative to give Ahmadinejad a platform, which he would not give them in Tehran. Why give him the credibility and the respectability of a major institution of higher learning? What message does that send to the students? This is not what the First Amendment is all about."
In a letter to President Bollinger, ADL said it was "extremely dismayed" by the university's invitation to the Iranian President, who has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel and has made remarks denying the Holocaust, and Bollinger's plans to personally introduce him at the forum. The League noted Iran's support for international terrorism and his country's ambition to acquire nuclear weapons as reasons enough not to provide Ahmadinejad a platform at Columbia.
"Last year, Columbia almost made the same mistake," said Mr. Foxman. "Ahmadinejad didn't get better since then. He's gotten worse."
............................
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
http://www.zoa.org/2007/09/zoa_condemns_co_2.htm
September 21, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Morton A. Klein, 212-481-1500
ZOA organizes rally against
Ahmadinejad at Columbia
ZOA Condemns Columbia's Lee Bollinger For Inviting Iran's Ahmadinejad To Address University
September 21, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Morton A. Klein, 212-481-1500
ZOA organizes rally against
Ahmadinejad at Columbia
New York — The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has condemned the decision by Columbia University president, Lee Bollinger, to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has denied the Holocaust, proclaimed that Israel should be wiped off the map and seeks to acquire nuclear weapons, to address the University. Ahmadinejad will appear at Columbia University on Monday, September 24, to deliver an address and participate in a question and answer session with university faculty and students at Columbia. Bollinger said in justifying the invitation to Ahmadinejad that he had insisted that the event would include a session of questions as long as Ahmadinejad’s address and that he personally would issue a number of “sharp challenges” to the Iranian leader on his public denial of the murder of European Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, public call for Israel’s elimination, support for terrorism targeting American personnel and civilians in Iraq, his pursuit of nuclear weapons, suppression of women’s rights and imprisonment of journalists and scholars, including Columbia alumni Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh ( Bollinger statement, September 19, 2007).
Commentary on Bollinger’s invitation to Ahmadinejad:
* Senator John McCain: “Rather than rolling out the red carpet for the leader of a terrorist-sponsoring regime, Columbia should be welcoming the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps back on campus” ( New York Daily News, September 21, 2007); “A man who is directing the maiming and killing of Americans troops should not be given an invitation to speak at an American university” ( Boston Globe, September 21, 2007).
* Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney: It is disappointing “when our academic institutions can’t draw a line between people who bring legitimate differences in perspective versus those who are completely out of touch with reality” (Mitt Romney, New York Daily News, September 21, 2007).
* W all Street Journal: “After promising that he would introduce the president ‘with a series of sharp challenges’ -- including Iran’s ‘reported support’ for international terrorism -- he went on to say that ‘it is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their expression.’ We’re all for free speech and the vigorous exchange of intellectual differences, though we don’t see how Mr. Bollinger can be, given his decision to discriminate against young men and women who seek to make careers in the military. We also don’t quite see how the right to free speech -- a freedom Mr. Ahmadinejad conspicuously denies his own people -- is tantamount to the right to an illustrious pedestal” ( Editorial, Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2007).
* William Kristol, Editor, Weekly Standard: “So at the request of the Iranian government, Columbia University will host the president of a terrorist regime which is right now responsible for the deaths of American soldiers on the field of battle ... One can imagine President Ahmadinejad nervously preparing for President Bollinger’s ‘sharp challenges,’ and wondering whether those challenges will detract from the propaganda victory Bollinger’s invitation has given him. He’s undoubtedly concluded it won’t be a big problem ... In fact, the introduction with “sharp challenges” by Bollinger makes the situation even more of a disgrace. Now there will be the appearance of real dialogue, of Ahmadinejad answering challenges, which further legitimizes the notion that Holocaust denial, say, is a subject of legitimate and reasonable debate” ( William Kristol , Weekly Standard, September 21, 2007).
* New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn: Universities should be “laboratories for a healthy exchange of differing ideas,” but argued such exchanges “should not include state-sponsored terrorism and hate speech. He can say whatever he wants on any streetcorner,” Quinn wrote in a letter to Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, asking that he cancel the event. ( New York Daily News, September 21, 2007).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “We are appalled at and condemn the naivety and superficiality of the justifications that have been advanced by Lee Bollinger for inviting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to address Columbia University. Ahmadinejad is only the most vocal of Muslim leaders calling for Israel’s elimination, meaning calling for the murder of the Jews of Israel, and uttering obscenities like denying the Nazi genocide of Europe’s Jews. What makes Ahmadinejad’s repeated calls for and predictions of Israel’s destruction so ominous is that his regime is proceeding unhindered towards acquiring nuclear weapons, which would allow him to carry out his dream. Ahmadinejad says repeatedly that no one will stop him.
“Against this, the racist bile of David Dukes pales into insignificance, yet Lee Bollinger would be blocking his entry at the front gate if anyone invited this racist to appear at Columbia. However, instead of barring from Columbia the anti-Semitic fulminations of Ahmadinejad, Bollinger invites him to restate them on campus. By inviting Ahmadinejad to address the university, Bollinger is giving a podium and an aura of respectability to this genocidally-minded Holocaust denier. Worse, he is permitting the impression to form that Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial and demands for Israel’s destruction are reasonable points of view for debate and discussion. Are David Dukes’ racist views on African- Americans reasonable subjects for debate at Columbia? Of course not.”
“It is for this reason that the ZOA has strongly supported the House Concurrent Resolution 21, which calls on ‘the United Nations Security Council to charge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the United Nations Charter because of his calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.’ The Resolution ‘condemns ... Ahmadinejad’s offensive remarks, contemptible statements, and reprehensible policies,’ calls on the United Nations Security Council and all Member States to ‘consider measures to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,’ and ‘reaffirms the unwavering strategic partnership between the United States and Israel.’
“How bitterly ironic and how inexcusable that Lee Bollinger issues an invitation to a man who has properly been the subject of a Congressional resolution calling upon the UN to charge him with violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Bollinger’s invitation to Ahmadinejad is an infamous decision that will haunt the reputation of Columbia University and its president for years to come.”
“We urge ZOA members and all people of goodwill to attend the rally at Columbia University to protest the presence of Ahmadinejad organized by ZOA, Hillel, Hasbara, StandWithUs, Amcha, and The David Project. The rally will take place on Monday, September 24, 1:00-3:00 on Columbia University’s campus outside Lerner Hall, 2920 Broadway. Non-Columbia students should assemble at the Columbia Gates at 116th and Broadway, for which a permit has been secured to stage a protest there.”
* * *
The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FindingHumaneJobs
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 10:16 AM
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