Bollinger Backlash: Iran Blames Zionists & Neocons-- Students & Faculty Weep For Mahmoud

What's more nuts?
The fact that Iran blames Zionists and Neocons for Bollinger's opening remarks or the fact that Columbia professors and students think he was attacking Mahmoud with pro-Bush "talking points"?
The New York Sun reported:

Students at the university's School of International and Public Affairs said they were planning to send a petition to Mr. Bollinger later this week telling him that his behavior was out of line...

A professor of history, Eric Foner, said faculty members objected more to the content than the form of Mr. Bollinger's remarks. "He accepts as true claims that are being made about Iran's role in Iraq, which are being put forward by people whose credibility on weapons in the Middle East has not always been 100% reliable," Mr. Foner said.

Meanwhile in Tehran...
Iranian politicians say that President Bollinger of Columbia University was goaded on by Zionists and Neoconservatives who hold so much power on today's liberal university campuses.
Mehr News reported:

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger’s insult to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad seriously lowered the status of the university, MP Kazem Jalali said here on Tuesday.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a Majlis session, Jalali said Bollinger was goaded on by the Zionists and the U.S. neoconservatives.

Ahmadinejad delivered a speech on Monday at New York’s Columbia University.

The school’s president used disrespectful epithets in his introduction of the Iranian president.

Ahmadinejad responded by saying that Bollinger’s remarks were an insult to the intelligence of the audience, adding that that he had fallen under the influence of hostile elements in the U.S. press and political scene.

Jalali, who is also a university professor, praised Ahmadinejad’s decision to speak at the university, saying it proved that Iranians favor negotiation and interaction.

Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Chairman Alaeddin Borujerdi told reporters it was expected that some Zionists would protest against Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia, but the university president’s disrespectful words came as a surprise.

“The rhetoric he used was not becoming for an academic and a host,” he added.

MP Ali Abbaspur stated that the insult to the Iranian president was the result of the “arrogant nature” of the university’s officials.

Bollinger's introduction was “very harsh”, said Hamid Dabashi, (pictured) a professor of Iranian studies at Columbia University.

“Inviting him and then turning around and alienating and insulting an entire nation, whose representative this man happens to be, is simply inappropriate,” the Associated Press quoted Dabashi as saying.

Meanwhile, the presidents of six leading Iranian universities wrote a letter to Bollinger, criticizing him for insulting the Iranian president.

MORE... The Spirit of Man has more on Dabashi.

And... Bollinger should have known he was going to get bashed for sounding too pro-Bush!!