Sparring, but speaking to critics as well

by Timothy M. Phelps

The two prominent men, both accomplished academics, fought a startling, bruising battle such as is seldom seen in public discourse, to a draw.

Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University and one of this nation’s foremost free speech scholars, drew the most blood, brutally and accurately calling out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Holocaust denial, terrorism and other outrages.

In doing so, he silenced many of his own critics, those who clamored that he should never have given “the hate monger” a platform. At the same time, the professor of 34 years taught the nation a lesson in the meaning of free speech, how to give it as well as receive it.

Ahmadinejad, the son of a blacksmith, is reported to have come in 132 on nationwide university exams out of 400,000 applicants. He won a PhD in transportation engineering 10 years ago, even after starting a political career as a provincial governor and, eventually, the populist mayor of Teheran.

But just as Bollinger, who has been a law school dean, a provost, and twice a university president, was speaking to his critics as much as he was to the Iranian president, Ahmadinejad’s audience as he parried Bollinger’s blows was not in the auditorium of the upper West Side campus.

It was back home in Iran, where Ahmadinejad is increasingly seen by some in the country’s leadership as a troublemaker and by some of his own supporters as a failure for not improving the economy as promised.

His best, and so far only, card is to stir the pungent pot of Iranian nationalism, with which the “insults” hurled at him Monday by Bollinger no doubt helped him considerably. It is considered beyond rude in the Islamic world to insult a guest, much less the standard bearer of such an exceedingly proud and ancient nation.

And in ways not seen since the death of Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Persian Ahmadinejad was also appealing beyond the usual boundaries of Middle Eastern ethnicity to the Arab “street.”

When he taunted the West Monday over Iran’s nuclear program, pointing out correctly that it is entirely legal under international law for Iran to pursue enrichment of uranium, he stirred pride at home and in the Arab world, where nuclear technology for Muslims is immensely popular.

When he deflected serious questions about his intentions toward Israel into a powerful speech about the many ways in which the world has wronged the Palestinians, his words resonated across the Arab and Muslim worlds.

When he did his obnoxious song and dance about Holocaust scholarship, he showed yet again that he does not give a damn how much pain he causes to the victims or, let’s face it, the rest of us who must forever live with the knowledge that we let it happen. Once again, he is playing very effectively to “the street,” which feels, as Ahmadinejad said, that the sins of the Germans have been wrongly visited on the Arabs.

The one thing Bollinger got fundamentally wrong about Ahmadinejad is when he called him “a petty and cruel dictator.” He may be petty and may be cruel but he is a dictator only in his dreams. What Westerners fail to understand about Iran is that its president is not the leader of the country. That would be Supreme Religious Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini, Khomeini’s heir, who controls the military and, as his title suggests, is the ultimate religious authority in the Iranian theocracy.

There are other checks on Ahmadinejad as well, including an elected parliament. In truth, Ahmadinejad is more like a prime minister in, say Egypt, where president Hosni Mubarak wields the power and rotates prime ministers as it suits his political needs.

Except that by being brash and outrageous and provoking such a strong response in the West, Ahmadinejad is creating for himself a following that could bolster his power at home and, more dangerously, make him a major figure in the Arab world.

Everything that Bollinger said about Ahmadinejad is true, save for the dictator taunt. But the net effect of the verbal duel was to enhance Ahmadinejad’s reputation where it matters to him.

Timothy M. Phelps, a former foreign correspondent, is Newsday's Washington bureau chief.