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Fmr. Obama senior official under fire for vile rant at halal food cart vendor, says killing 4,000 Palestinian kids wasn’t enough

November 22, 2023 | | Print Article

A former Obama White House and senior national security official is facing a world of wrath for harassing a halal food cart vendor.

The official, Stuart Seldowitz, was seen in videos published to X taking pictures of and harassing a Muslim food vendor in Manhattan.

Watch:

“[H]is harassment of the Halal Cart vendor at 83rd and 2nd ave has been ongoing for two weeks. NYPD has been called multiple times, local precinct stated that ‘there is nothing they can do because it is free speech,'” according to the Columbia grad student, Layla, who published the videos to X.

In the videos, Seldowitz is seen threatening to send a photo of the Muslim vendor to his “friends in immigration” and Egypt’s security services who, he claims, would torture him “when they deport you back to Egypt.”

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“Did you rape your daughter like Mohammed did?” he later asks as he laughs and snaps a photo of the vendor.

At one point, the vendor informs Seldowitz that he doesn’t speak English, prompting the former Obama administration official to call him “ignorant” and claim that his lack of English-speaking skills is why he works at a food cart..

At another point, the former Obama administration official holds up an Israel pin and asks the vendor if he has a permit and visa.

“You support killing young children,” Seldowitz says, arguing that the vendor supports Hamas.

“You kill children, not me. Go,” the vendor replies.

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“I didn’t kill children. If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough,” Seldowitz responds.

All of the clips have since gone mega-viral, attracting accusations of Islamaphobia and costing Seldowitz his gig as a lobbyist.

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“According to a November 2022 announcement by Gotham Government Relations, a Manhattan-based lobbying firm, Mr. Seldowitz was the group’s new foreign affairs chair. In a short biography that has since been taken down from the firm’s website, he is described as a three-time winner of the State Department’s Superior Honor Award,” The New York Times reported.

“According to David Schwartz, the firm’s president, Mr. Seldowitz was never an employee of Gotham Government Relations and was not registered — as far as Mr. Schwartz was aware — as a lobbyist for the firm,” the paper continued.

“I’m personally outraged and offended by this language. Islamophobia and antisemitism have no place in our world and must be eradicated,” Schwartz said to the Times, adding that he wants to offer pro-bono legal representation to the food cart vendor.

Meanwhile, Seldowitz has admitted to The Daily Beast that it was him in the videos.

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“The bottom line is, yes it’s me,” he told the outlet.

However, he defended himself by claiming the videos only told one side of the story and that the vendor had started it by expressing support for Hamas.

But it appears it’s already too late, as a host of high-profile figures have already condemned him, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and even New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Look:

So who exactly is Seldowitz? During former President Barack Obama’s presidency, he served as “acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate” and “deputy director/senior political officer in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003,” according to Vice magazine.

Going forward, it seems very unlikely he’s ever to serve in a Democrat administration again.

Vivek Saxena
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