Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Ahmadinejad and the New York Jews

The conduct of Columbia University's President Bollinger while introducing Iranian President Ahmadinejad was reprehensible. It made him and the university look foolish. Why did he do it? I don't know, but I would guess it was for money, in particular money from New York Jews, who have a lot of it. Bollinger probably got a message from some big Jewish donors that his invitation to Ahmadinejad put their future contributions to Columbia in jeopardy. So, Bollinger decided that if he insulted Ahmadinejad sufficiently while introducing him, he might keep his donors under control.

The New York Times' report on the incident closed by saying:

It remains unclear whether Columbia’s leaders were able to mollify critics through their critical treatment of Mr. Ahmadinejad. But they made some headway: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee sent out an e-mail message shortly after the speech with the subject line, “A Must Read: Columbia University President’s Intro of Iran’s Ahmadinejad today.”

Inside was a transcript of Mr. Bollinger’s introduction.

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