AhmadinejadIran’s belligerent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is a loser in most of his international appearances. But on Monday he garnered a rare victory at an unlikely venue: Columbia University in New York. He withstood a barrage of insults from that university’s president — his host– and, though apparently caught off guard, he held his head above water.

“Mr. President, you’ve all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger said to Ahmadinejad,  telling the Iranian leader that “you’re either brazenly provocative or astonishingly ignorant.”

As Ahmadinejad heard those words from a translator, it seemed obvious from his expressions  that he probably had never heard similar remarks from a person standing 10 feet away, especially if that person was his host.

Hence he chose to take the high road.

That’s uncharacteristic of him. This is a man who has spewed hateful words over the years and who continues to question the existence of the Holocaust.

For those things he deserves to be challenged and admonished — quite strongly, yet civilly. But Bollinger’s remarks were devoid of the civility that is emblematic for most academic leaders, not to mention the fact that the Columbia president was host to a foreign leader, who, whether Bollinger agreed with him or not, deserved respect.

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Bollinger had been under intense pressure to cancel Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia — a request he consistently rejected. Yet his withering comments stripped much of the respect he might have earned throughout that ordeal.

In the end Bollinger lost to a man who shouldn’t be handed a victory. President Ahmadinejad used the exchange to rally his base not just in Iran, but in the Muslim world, where he epitomizes somewhat of a firewall against the perceived arrogance of the United States.

Even Ahmadinejad’s harshest critics were dismayed with Bollinger’s incongruous insults. Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League told the New York Times that “If you invite someone, you have to be polite. Ahmadinejad scored points, especially in their culture. If you permit an enemy to come into your home, you still treat him with dignity and respect. Therefore, we lost.”

Now Bollinger has to deal with the double whammy: He disregarded those who advised him not to invite the fiery Ahmadinejad in the first place; yet, when he did, he failed miserably to host him respectfully.