'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Senior national security official in the Obama administration Stuart Seldowitz’s diatribe laced with Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian sentiments directed at a halal cart vendor in New York has gone viral online.
The disconcerting video recorded by a harassed halal car vendor showed Stuart Seldowitz, 64, spewing a deeply offensive rant at an unidentified vendor. He threatened the man with deportation and his family with torture by Mukhabarat, the Egyptian intelligence agency.
The series of videos first surfaced online on X, formerly known as Twitter on Tuesday, November 21. The footage showed Stuart Seldowitz relentlessly deriding and berating the vendor, who repeatedly asks the former political adviser to leave while trying to disengage from the slew of hate-fuelled verbal onslaught.
Seldowitz also appeared to call him a terrorist and made other claims about ongoing the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The former Obama administration advisor's comments come amid the Israel-Hamas war that has led to an increase in Islamophobia and anti-semitism in the United States.
The first video recorded in the night began with Seldowitz threatening the vendor that he has “friends in immigration” and coupling the threat with “the Egyptian Mukhabarat wants your picture.”
As the vendor tried to disengage from Seldowitz, telling him he does not speak English and repeatedly asking him to “go,” Seldowitz went on to threaten the vendor’s family:
“The Mukhabarat will get your parents. Does your father like his fingernails? They’ll take them out one by one.”
In response, the audibly beleaguered vendor again asks Seldowitz to leave, to which he doggedly replies:
“Why should I go? It’s America. It's a free country. Not like Egypt.”
Throughout the video, Seldowitz contrived to provoke the vendor calling him ignorant for not learning English.
However, as the vendor refused to engage, Seldowitz amplified his insults by saying that Prophet Mohammad “r*ped” his daughters and the holy book Quran, which he termed the “Arabic book,” was used in the toilet.
In the second video, Seldowitz seemingly returned to the cart to continue the Islamophobic tirade. In the video, Seldowitz held up a button with Israel on it and added:
“I’m going to put up big signs here that say ‘This guy believes in Hamas.’”
When the vendor says he's an American citizen, adding “You support killing little children, you’re a terrible person,” Seldowitz, who is also a senior consultant in humanitarian diplomacy for GDC Inc., says:
"If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn't enough..."
GDC Inc. is a logistics company that aids areas impacted by war and natural disasters. The company was founded by “Israeli-American” entrepreneur Moti Kahana.
What we know about former Obama advisor Stuart Seldowitz
The videos that showed a senior national security official in the Obama administration, Stuart Seldowitz, hurling Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rants at a halal cart vendor have sparked outrage online.
In response, Gotham Government Relations a D.C.-based lobbying firm where Seldowitz served as a foreign affairs chair, cut ties with the lobbyist, calling his behavior in the clip “vile and racist.”
“Gotham Government Relations has ended all affiliation with Stuart Seldowitz, an individual who hasn’t contributed to our work in years.
"The video of his actions is vile, racist, and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm,” the lobbying firm said Tuesday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
In a press release in Nov. 2022, Gotham Government Relations said that Stuart Seldowitz was a former Director of the National Security Council under President Obama and served as a former diplomat for the U.S. State Department for five presidencies.
The now-deleted profile on the Gotham website said that Seldowitz, who was a three-time winner of the State Department’s Superior Honor Award, is a graduate of George Washington University.
According to a 2001 petition Seldowitz filed with the Office of the Inspector General, the Department of State, in 1990 he served on the United States delegation to the Nuclear and Space Talks (NST) in Geneva, Switzerland. His wife served as secretary to the Deputy Negotiator on the NST’s Defense and Space negotiating group.
Seldowitz also served as a Deputy Director in the US State Department's Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003.
Seldowitz reportedly had a distinguished 30-year career with the United States Department of State and New York State and worked as Acting Director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate under the order of the Executive Office of the President in the early 2000s.
Jerusalem Post in a 2023 article revealed that Seldowitz worked for an Israeli-American entrepreneur Moti Kahana who runs a company called GDC Inc. as a ‘Humanitarian Diplomacy Senior Consultant’
Netizens react as Stuart Seldowitz's viral Islamophobic video
Stuart Seldowitz's Islamophobic video which has amassed over four million views has triggered widespread reproval from social media users who criticized the former Obama advisor over disgraceful conduct.
In October, Seldowitz, who was interviewed about the Israel-Hamas war in an hour-long right-wing podcast by Amy Peikoff, said that reports about the poor conditions in Gaza are exaggerated before noting that Hamas was responsible for the civilian casualties in Palestine.
In the interview, Seldowitz described the Israel Defense Force as a “moral army:"
“The Israelis will and have in the past done almost everything that can reasonably be expected to keep civilian casualties down as low as possible."
As Israel continues air and ground attacks against Palestine, health officials in Gaza said on Tuesday, November 21 that they have lost the ability to count the dead as the recent death toll surpassed 11,000, AP reported.
As Seldowitz continued to incur the wrath of social media, he's yet to respond to the viral video.
