Mahmoud's Legacy
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has left the United States for South America, where he is cavorting with Latin American dictators. But Columbia's "distinguished lecturer" left behind a legacy in New York:
Vandals spray-painted at least 19 swastikas and left anti-Semitic flyers all over Brooklyn Heights in a blitz on Monday night a few hours after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spewed anti-Semitic rhetoric in a speech at Columbia University — and many believe there is a connection.“The visit of Ahmadinejad, the little Hitler, brings the anti-Semites out of the woodwork,” Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Borough Park) said at a hastily called press conference on Remsen Street on Tuesday.
The vandals hit two synagogues — Congregation B’nai Avraham, an Orthodox shul, and the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, a Reform temple — along Remsen Street between Clinton and Henry streets, tagging them with the symbol of Nazi Germany.
At least three cars and two apartment buildings were spray-painted with swastikas a few blocks away on Columbia Place between State and Joralemon streets. The graffiti at one of the buildings, 45 Columbia Pl., also included the phrase “Kill Jews.”
The vandals also left fliers on a number of cars on that block with a swastika and the phrase, “Kill the Jews.”
So the distinguished lecturer's point got through.
For me, there was only one really memorable moment associated with Mahmoud's New York tour. It was on Tuesday, when Ahmadinejad gave a press conference at the United Nations. Somehow, Karnit Goldwasser made her way into the press conference and commanded a microphone.
If you don't know who Karnit Goldwasser is, a good place to start would be her appearance on Bill Bennett's radio show; we posted the audio here. Mrs. Goldwasser had been married to Ehud Goldwasser for only ten months when he was kidnapped by Hezbollah terrorists, along with another Israeli soldier, and spirited into Lebanon. That was in July 2006. Since then, Karnit Goldwasser has worked tirelessly on three continents to bring attention to her husband's plight and to try to secure his release. If there is such a thing as a hero in the world today, Mrs. Goldwasser qualifies. It has now been reported that the two Israeli soldiers were critically injured when they were captured by Hezbollah, and most observers doubt whether they are still alive. But Karnit Goldwasser has never flagged or faltered in her effort to save her husband, if that is still possible.
On Tuesday, she had the opportunity to confront the man who, more than anyone else, controls the organization that kidnapped her husband and either murdered him, or still holds him prisoner. The moderator called on her for a question. She was, as always, calm and intelligent:
"Why are you not allowing the Red Cross to visit them?" Karnit Goldwasser asked of her husband Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who was kidnapped with him. When Ahmadinejad didn't respond to her questioning, despite her having been called on by the moderator, she asked, "How come you're not answering me?"
Mahmoud appeared stunned; he looked around the room for someone to take him off the hook. The United Nations cut the power to Mrs. Goldwasser's microphone. She was escorted from the room, and Ahmadinejad, the distinguished lecturer, continued his press conference and his triumphal tour of New York, which included a dinner with Brian Williams, Christiane Amanpour, and other distinguished journalists and academics. And thugs handed out leaflets that said, "Kill the Jews."
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