wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Austin from new york September 25, 2007 - 10:27AM

  I was thinking yesterday that if george bush had been invited to speak at the university I graduated from, there would have been an uproar among the students, and there would not be any talk of “open-minded, academic debate”. Remember John McCain at New School? Somehow I suspect all these people trying to defend a university’s right to open debate (to which, of course, they are entitled) miss the essential point: do they expect these guests to be open-minded and debate honestly in the first place? Obviously not; any world leader on the world stage will play the classic politician, whether it’s bush or ahmedinajad…

  The point is, opening an academic forum to politicians like these is not engaging in debate, rather it is providing them with a platform from which they spew tiresome talking points and evade answering direct questions. Universities shouldn’t be so naïve (we have cable news to provide that service). We should ask more from the universities, but we should first ask more from our politicians.

  
  
• [2] Alice Bitterman from Murray Hill September 25, 2007 - 10:31AM

  Is it me or is Brian using this "leader" as a punching bag or red herring for pro-Israel support?

  Somehow him denying the holocaust (which is not what he did) does not justify Israel.

  
  
• [3] Jack Garbuz from Queens September 25, 2007 - 10:35AM

  Both the students and the faculty are ignoramuses. Nobody pointed out to Ahmadinejad that Cyrus and Darius, the founders of the Persian empire, were zionists who allowed Jewish exiles in the empire to return to Judea to rebuild the Temple. Nobody pointed out that there are more Jews than non-Jews in "Palestine" today, and if there were a referendum, that the Jews would win it over the Arabs, and it would remain a Jewish state by popular vote. He said the Palestinians had nothing whatsoever to do with the Holocaust but nobody brought up Haj Amin el Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and top muslim cleric who not only terrorized and murdereed Jews and moderate Arabs in the 1930s, but during WWII worked with Eichmann in Berlin to make sure no Jews escaped the Nazi clutches to Palestine. At a very minimum, he alone was responsible for at least 5,000 Jewish children who might have been allowed to go to Palestine, but ended up in the death camps instead. And there is much more. The fact is, that any smooth talking dictator, from Mussolini, Hitler to Castro and Ahmadinejad can easily win over the mild mannered and naive American public. I wish I could go on. Thanks.

  
  
• [4] J Shin from New York September 25, 2007 - 10:39AM

  I listened to Ahmedinejad live via live webcast. While I detest most of his views and positions. But I think Brian is mistrepresenting his comments on the holocaust. His comments began with stating that the given is that the holocaust occured. The body of his speech was not about whether or not the holocasut occured but saying that there needs to be further investigation to causes and what really happened. I agree that his actions defy his comments in that he has supported and hosted academics who not only want further investigation in to the holocaust, but those who openly deny its occurence.

  
  
• [5] Arnold Bentor from Queens September 25, 2007 - 10:42AM

  Why all the centers for Holocaust studies in existence if there is nothing yet to study or learn?

  Brian you lead guests with questions and do not get to the real meat of it.

  Even if Iran has nuclear weapons, it's physically IMPOSSIBLE to hit the continental US with them. We are safe!

  
  
• [6] Lorenzo September 25, 2007 - 10:52AM

  While reading first pages titles these days one gets the impression that they are probabily not very different from Iranian propaganda; one might argue that both societies show signs of hysterical insecurity. What could have been viewed as an opportunity to implicitly showcase "western values" was almost squandered by Bollinger's fear of loosing his job and by students unaware of the historical role of Universities.

  
  
• [7] Lisa Popolo from New Rochelle, NY September 25, 2007 - 10:53AM

  Let's broaden our perspective and talk about the fantastic interview Ahmadinejad taped with Charlie Rose prior to coming to Columbia.

  Did anyone, including Brian Lehrer see it?

  Mr. Rose, who is usually an overbearing, self involved interviewer, was rendered speechless like a child learning something for the first time last night.

  Somehow, I hope it is made available again for others to see. I suspect it would reshape everyone's thinking about him.

  My husband; a Jew, myself; a Christian, and my teegage daughter; uncommitted, were all pleased to hear what he had to say. He is a professor at his university and actually, when taken seriously, will deliver information like a professor rather than a politician. Unfortuately, we are often given well edited and self servingly translated glimpses of him, filtered through our media, to continue presenting him in the White House's preferred light. Or, he is set up for failure, as was the Columbia debacle.

  I won't discuss what he said on Charlie Rose as I don't want to prejudice you ahead of time!

  
  
• [8] Susan Veronica Rak from Somerset NJ September 25, 2007 - 10:58AM

  I had another thought on Ahmedinejad's comment on homsexuality in Iran... if he is indeed as wiley as some say, perhaps the phrasing translated as "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country ... I don't know who's told you that we have this" shows how closely he parsed his reply.

  Of course there are homosexuals in Iran - just not like we have here. Gay rights, being out and proud, same-sex marriage and civil unions - even these somewhat limited freedoms we enjoy in this country are unheard of in Iran. So I guess they do not have homosexuals like we do here.

  The laughter after his comment leaves me with mixed feelings... what can we do to globalize human rights, including the right to safety and freedom of gays and lesbians in Iran and elsewhere? Laughing at seeming ignorance may not be a positive step.

  
  
• [9] antonio from park slope September 25, 2007 - 11:00AM

  Is this it Lisa?

  If it is the internet rocks!

  http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2007/09/24/1/a-conversation-with-mahmoud-ahmadinejad

  
  
• [10] Jay Feld from Flushing, NY September 25, 2007 - 11:13AM

  I can see a double-edged advantage to giving someone like this fellow a live forum: (1) it serves to show "the banality of evil"; and paradoxically, (2) it serves to show the charismatic and even the hypnotic quality of evil -- there's something about a man like him standing before an audience and propogating the "big lie," with all sincerity, that causes even (or especially) people of good will to want to give him the benefit of the doubt, hence the "hypnotic" quality.

  
  
• [11] Lisa Peters from Bronx, NY September 25, 2007 - 11:30AM

  Susan, it's so nice that you and your husband are so enlightened. I'm just wondering. If someone like this Iran nut acts out, and soon, are you going to look back and be pleased with yourself for your openmindedness? Or would you then be happier after you experience the trauma, had NYC and Federal Police arrested this guy, being that's it's a proven fact that he's blowing up our military guys with his IUD's and his training.

  
  
• [12] Solomon Kumpf from NY, NY September 25, 2007 - 11:32AM

  I couldn't agree with you more Jack. Also, I think the ARab states were pleased when Israel arrived in their neighborhood and conspired to wipe them off the face of the map, but then they were dismayed when Israel turned around and decimated all the Arab militaries in a mere six days. How sad for them all. Don't forget. It was the British that created the refugee camps, and it was Jordan that refused to take in one single refugee. So let's lay the blame at the correct historical doorsteps. Wouldn't it be amazing if people studied history?

  
  
• [13] mgdu from hell's kitchen September 25, 2007 - 01:21PM

  Re #2:

  Alice, I’m certainly hearing it along the same lines as you, which is very worrisome, because I usually find BL’s views reasonable, even agreeable, except when the subject touches on Israel, where his usual liberal values and moral perspective suddenly become distorted, as if he has some special relationship to Israel.

  Judging from comments over the past two days, many other listeners are also troubled by BL’s dishonesty in this area, particularly in these programs his repeated, deliberate, hyperbolic misrepresentations of what Ahmadinejad has said regarding Israel and the Nazi genocides.

  I’m afraid it’s worse than you suggest, that BL is not demonizing A. just to rally general proIsrael support, but doing his small part to grease the wheels and befuddle the public into going to war against Iran, a war that Israel clearly want Amerrica to wage, but which would be many times more disastrous for U.S. than the Iraq debacle.

  I think that in this matter BL is dishonestly abusing WNYC air and betraying all those in the audience who value peace, justice, and human rights for all.

  
  
• [14] Peter from Park Slope September 25, 2007 - 06:38PM

  Alice Bitterman wrote:

  "Somehow him denying the holocaust (which is not what he did) does not justify Israel."

  Why does Israel have to be justified? Does Iran have to be justified? China? France? Lebanon?... What other country has to be justified?

  It is highly disturbing that Israel, and Israel alone, is so often referred to as the only country in the world that needs to be justified. I have to wonder if that has anything to do with anti-Semitism? And I wonder how many folks will discount this post because I dare use the term “anti-Semitism”?

  Peter

  
  
• [15] Jack Garbuz from Queens September 26, 2007 - 11:42AM

  Israel is the MOST LEGAL state of earth!

  Proof:

  1. Cyrus and Darius,the founders of the great Persian empire, recognized Judea as the homeland of the Jews in exile, and gave them "the right to return" first.For this, they are venerated by many Jews.

  2. The League of Nations, after much deliberation, considering the rights of the 700,000 Arabs in Palestine versus the rights of 9 million displaced Jews constantly facing prejudice and blatant hatred in the diaspora,

  finally decided in 1922 that Palestine was to be restored as the Jewish National Home, and gave JEws the right to return and settle, provided that the civil and religious rights of non-Jews be fully respected. From 1882 to

  1948, not one inch of Arab land was taken. ALl was either legally purchased, or settlements were built on empty wastelands and former Ottoman state lands, as the Mandate prescribed.

  3. The UN General Assembly in NOv. 1947, voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews jubilantly accepted, but the Arabs all attacked the JEws instead.

  The UN did not condemn the Arab aggression on a state it had just authorized. The result were two refugee problems, one the Palestinian refugee problem, and second, the flight of an even greater number of Jews from the Muslim countries. Today, over 1.2 million non-Jews, mostly Arabs, live as Israeli citizens, but barely 50,000 Jews, if that many, are to be still found in the Muslim world that once contained well over a million.