Palestinian leaders are not making life any simpler for Columbia University and its president, Lee C. Bollinger.

In recent days, both Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashaal have likened Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip to the Nazi Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were systematically and deliberately slaughtered.

The problem for Columbia and Bollinger, who welcome Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites to speak on campus (and to teach there whenever possible), is that the Palestinians are comparing what is going on now in the Gaza Strip to an event that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tells the world never even happened.

Which terrorists should Columbia and Bollinger support going forward? Which terrorists should next be honored with a platform at the university?

Let us break this down; starting with Ahmadinejad, who is not only an avowed Holocaust denier, he actually hosted a global conference in Iran that drew a crowd of anti-Semitic paranoids just like himself.

Ordinarily, what a whacked out leader of Iran who denies the Holocaust says or does would be of little interest to sane people. But Bollinger and Columbia wanted their students to hear first hand from Ahmadinejad, so last September 24, they turned their campus over to the blood-drenched madman in the name of free speech and academic inquiry.

Ahmadinejad made no excuses for his Holocaust denials and used the event to blast western ideals, America, Zionists, and whoever else came to mind. (Back at home, Ahmadinejad enjoys torturing his own people, especially gays and women who dare be accused of immodesty, whether or not the accusations are true.)

Well Columbia and Bollinger just love providing free speech platforms to those who hate America. By contrast, the campus has run off military recruiters and other American patriots who had the chutzpah to love the United States or preach defense of its borders from illegal immigrants.

Now comes Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority (and himself a terrorist in diplomat’s clothing) who calls Israel’s response to daily bombardments of its civilian population “worse than the Holocaust.”

No one, not Abbas, not Ahmadinejad, not Bollinger and not Columbia seem to be bothered by the fact that the Palestinians in Gaza – which is no longer occupied – each day send rockets to kill innocent Jews across the border in Sedorot and Ashkelon. Just imagine if everyday the residents of Tijuana were shooting rockets and killing folks in San Diego!

Killing and maiming Jews is okay.

But when those damn Jews fight back and some terrorists and Palestinian innocents shed blood, well, it is worse than the Holocaust. Much worse.

Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas, who hides under a rock somewhere in Syria and slithers out periodically to proclaim the forthcoming demise of Israel, also describes Israel’s defense against his rockets “the real Holocaust.”

Moreover, Mashaal says that Israel exaggerates the Nazi Holocaust and uses it “to blackmail the world.”

And, pity, him, then there is Lee C. Bollinger.

Bollinger desperately wants to do the right thing and wants to invite the right terrorists to campus. He wants to make sure the truest of Holocaust deniers are given a platform at Columbia to insure the academic integrity of the campus. But whom to believe: Ahmadinejad the full out denier, or Mashaal and Abbas, who want to compare their misery to that of the Jews of Europe during World War II, but each of whom has a different version of how little the Jews actually suffered at the hands of the Nazis?

Let this be a lesson to all university administrators: There is always another evil tyrant just around the corner begging to borrow some of your campus’s credibility to promote his sick views. If you play favorites too soon, some of the best terrorists may be excluded from your future invitation rosters.

Choose your terrorists and genocidal maniacs wisely. It's a lesson Lee Bollinger has learned the hard way.