Barack Obama’s former National Security Council adviser smiled as he was charged with five counts over an Islamophobic attack on a halal street vendor.
Stuart Seldowitz, 64, offered a half-hearted apology Tuesday night for letting loose on the street cart owner amid the war between Israel and Hamas in New York City.
An NYPD spokesperson confirmed to that Seldowitz was arrested and charged Wednesday evening.
He faces two counts of aggravated harassment and three counts of stalking, one under the city’s hate crimes law, one for intent to incite fear and one for committing an act at the victim’s workplace.
Seldowitz was seen being escorted out of the 19th Ward on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with a grin on his face.
This comes after shocking footage emerged this week of him telling 24-year-old Mohammad Hussein: “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian children, it wouldn’t be enough.”
Stuart Seldowitz, Barack Obama’s former National Security Council adviser, was seen smiling as he was led to the perpetrator after being charged on multiple counts over shocking footage that showed him berating a halal vendor
Mohammad, 24, said he did nothing to provoke the attacks and is now scared
He also asked whether the victim “raped his daughter like Mohammed and even threatened him with deportation to Egypt” during the medical tirade.
The New York-based firm he worked with, Gotham Government Relations, “terminated all association” with him and offered to represent the seller in any litigation.
Speaking to City & State on Tuesday evening, Seldowitz, who served as deputy director in the State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003, briefly apologized.
“I regret that the whole thing happened and I’m sorry,” he said. “But you know, in the heat of the moment I said things I probably shouldn’t have said.”
He said, “I had an argument with a grocery clerk.” It’s entirely possible that it was me. “I mean, I haven’t seen the video, but I think it’s probably me.”
But even though he complains about the salesman’s belief in the Koran, he doesn’t think he has a problem with Muslims.
“If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have brought up the religious aspect,” Seldowitz said.
“I don’t think I’m an Islamophobe.” “I have advocated for equal treatment of Muslims on numerous occasions to a wide variety of people.”
“You support the killing of small children,” says Seldowitz, taking a photo of the seller and asking him to smile. He asks him: “Did you rape your daughter like Mohammed?”
Seldowitz, 64, issued a half-hearted apology Tuesday evening for letting loose on the street cart owner amid the war between Israel and Hamas in New York City
An NYPD spokesperson confirmed to that Seldowitz was arrested and charged Wednesday evening
Seldowitz is charged with two counts of aggravated harassment and three counts of stalking, one under the city’s hate crimes law, one count of intent to incite fear and one count of committing the act at the victim’s workplace
Obama’s former National Security Council adviser Stuart Seldowitz, 64, is escorted from the NYPD’s 19th Precinct in Manhattan
Seldowitz was seen being escorted out of the 19th Ward on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with a smile on his face.
Barack Obama’s former National Security Council adviser has been arrested and charged on multiple counts after shocking footage showed him insulting a halal vendor
Gotham Government Relations, a New York-based firm, has terminated “all association” with 64-year-old Stuart Seldowitz over the videos
An NYPD spokesperson confirmed to that Seldowitz was taken into custody even though he has not yet been charged with a crime.
Seldowitz was arrested near his apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan
This man in a green jacket insulted and harassed a Halal cart vendor at 83rd and 2nd Ave in NYC. Does anyone know who this man is? I plan to report to the authorities. pic.twitter.com/GwklyXpsPH
– Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
Seldowitz calls the man a “rapist” and calls him “ignorant” because of his lack of English, after which he goes on a tirade about the Koran.
“What are you saying? They speak Arabic, the language of the Quran, the Holy Quran. “Some people use this as a toilet,” he says.
‘What do you think of it? People who use the Koran as a toilet. Do you mind? Do you mind? Tell me the truth? You do not speak English? That’s too bad.’
“That’s why you’re selling food in a food truck because you’re ignorant, but you should learn English. “It’ll help you when they deport you back to Egypt.”
Seldowitz said he had several altercations with the cart clerk, which a store employee confirmed to Tuesday evening.
“Yeah, I went back because I pass by that food truck on a regular basis and I came back and had other arguments,” he explained.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said on
Gotham Government Relations claimed that Seldowitz had not worked there for years, although Vice claimed he was hired as chairman of foreign affairs in 2022.
This man in a green jacket insulted and harassed a Halal cart vendor at 83rd and 2nd Ave in NYC. Does anyone know who this man is? I plan to report to the authorities. pic.twitter.com/GwklyXpsPH
– Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
The original video, which lasts over two minutes, shows Seldowitz talking to a halal cart salesman, using slurs for Egyptians, and then saying that secret service agents in Egypt are “getting your parents.”
This man continues to abuse and harass the Halal cart seller. He ends the video with “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian children? It wasn’t enough.” pic.twitter.com/yhu4HSvIEZ
– Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
His harassment of the halal cart vendor at 83rd and 2nd Avenue has been going on for two weeks.
The NYPD was called multiple times, the local precinct stated that “they can’t do anything because it’s free speech.” pic.twitter.com/6LYL40TTFK– Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
“I haven’t worked with Gotham in a very long time,” Seldowitz claimed.
“I had a high opinion of the people of Gotham until I found out they had made this statement.” I considered the people of Gotham friends, and I didn’t have a chance to talk to them or try to talk to them about it to talk about why they felt the need to make that statement.”
The feeling appears to be mutual, as David Schwartz, the founder and president of Gotham Government Relations, said that Seldowitz was never an employee and that he would help the sellers if they took him to court.
“By the way, I will represent the food vendor on a pro bono basis if he wants to file a lawsuit against Stuart Seldowitz,” he said. “I am absolutely outraged by this video.”
His LinkedIn page shows a stint as acting director of the National Security Council’s South Asia Directorate from February 2009 to January 2011 under President Obama.
According to his LinkedIn page, Seldowitz has also worked as a journalist – briefly as an editor for Bloomberg News – a strategist and a life insurance broker.
However, Northwestern Mutual – which he listed as his current employer on that site – said on X early Thursday: “We have confirmed that this individual is neither contracted with nor affiliated with Northwestern Mutual.”
Left-wing journalist Matt Binder claimed that Seldowitz served as a State Department agent under five different presidents.
Referring to Israel’s response to the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people, he also says: “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian children? It wasn’t enough.’
According to his Gotham bio – which has since been removed – he is a three-time winner of the State Department’s Superior Honor Award.
Tommy Vietor, host of the popular liberal podcast Pod Save America and a former spokesman for Obama and the NSC, explained his role in a post on X.
“He was a State Department employee for 30 years who reported to the NSC during the Obama administration, not a direct employee. “But it’s terribly embarrassing for the US government to associate this guy in any way.”
A State Department spokesperson told : “The United States unequivocally rejects racist language in any form.”
In the BitChute interview, he claims that people find it difficult to understand the conflict because they have no connection to the Arab and Muslim world.
“Their culture, their religion, their history is so different than most of us.”
He adds that he believes that based on his reading of its charter, Hamas’s “ultimate goal is, frankly, the creation of an Islamic state and an Islamic caliphate throughout the Middle East and even beyond.”
“Hamas is and was an organization that had no interest in a peace agreement with Israel, no interest in compromise, no interest in negotiations,” he said.
Left-wing journalist Matt Binder claimed that Seldowitz served as a State Department agent under five different presidents
“He was a State Department employee for 30 years reporting to the NSC during the Obama administration, not a direct employee,” said former Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor. “But it’s terribly embarrassing for the U.S. government to associate this guy in any way.”
“They have a very clear view of the world that Israel must be destroyed, it must be replaced by a Palestinian state, it must be replaced by a particularly Islamist state. “That doesn’t just apply to Israel.”
He added that Hamas had been preparing for the attack for over two years, calling their plan “very sophisticated, very effective” and that they were “pretty smart guys” who carried out the attack because the Palestinians felt the West has forgotten them in the wake of the Abraham Accords under President Trump.
While praising Hamas’s intelligence, he said at one point in the interview, “During my time at the State Department, we always joked that the Middle East was quickly entering the 14th century.”
He also said he was “very surprised” and “heartened” that “no one” in America or Europe said Israel’s response was a war crime. At this point, only 1,000 people had been killed in Palestine
has reached out to Gotham and Seldowitz for comment.
Mohammad Hussein, 24, said Wednesday morning that the harassment began two weeks ago when he alleged that Seldowitz, 64, began targeting him indiscriminately, asking him about his background and then calling him out about the war with the Hamas in Israel insulting Gaza.
Mohammad, speaking in Arabic while his boss translated, told that he felt “violated.”
‘He is afraid. “He’s just a worker, now he’s fighting against someone with connections and a lot of power,” said Islam Mustafa, the company’s owner.
Mohammad said the incidents began randomly on November 7.
When visited the shopping cart on Wednesday, there were no pro-Palestinian flags or posters.
The owners insist they have never put up any political posters or messages and that they simply want to “serve the community.”
“We’ve been here for years and haven’t had any problems with anyone.” We’ve been here ever since [Q] The train opened about six or seven years ago and we haven’t had any problems.
“Our employees have no criminal record, there are no problems with anyone, we are all well trained,” he said.
Seldowitz, he said, came up to him by chance and started asking him where he was from.
The street cart in Yorkville on Manhattan’s Upper East Side serves halal food
Car owner Islam Mustafa, who was dressed in black, told how Seldowitz began harassing his employees a week ago. He is pictured with Ahmed Mohian (right), his business partner
He then began insulting him about the war and accusing him of supporting Hamas.
A customer called the NYPD, but business owners said the problem was largely ignored. Now, after public outrage and support for Mohammad has grown, the NYPD is investigating.
“We are extremely upset by the offensive language he used. “It’s unfortunate that it happened.
“We have no hatred towards anyone.” We have all respect for all religions and ideologies, we are not here to foment hate speech. How could a government official say such a thing? Mustafa, the business owner, added.
In a video he threatened Mohammad: “I will send your picture to my friends in the immigration office.” The Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents. Does your father like his fingernails? He will take them down one by one.’
Israel’s national security adviser announced that no hostages held by Hamas in Gaza will be released before Friday, despite both sides agreeing to a ceasefire.
Officials say negotiations for the release of the kidnapped Israelis will “progress and continue,” but the ten women and children who were expected to be released tomorrow will now not be released until Friday.
It was not immediately clear whether the agreement between Israel and Hamas fell through or whether the delayed release of the hostages was due to a technical matter.
News of the delay emerged just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “rescue all hostages held by Hamas” and “eliminate” the terrorist group during a televised news conference.
Netanyahu and the other two members of his special war cabinet also announced that the war would resume after the four-day ceasefire and continue “until we achieve all of our objectives.”
Israel’s goals are to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and repatriate all 240 hostages held in Gaza.
Addressing the families of the hostages, Netanyahu (pictured) said he had not stopped thinking about them and their loved ones since the start of the war, adding: “We will rescue all the hostages held by Hamas.”
Hospitals across Israel are on standby to receive the approximately 50 hostages who will arrive over the next four days as a four-day ceasefire begins at 10 a.m. tomorrow (pictured: photos of hostages at the Museum of Modern Art in Tel Aviv).
Palestinians wait before leaving the northern Gaza Strip via a humanitarian corridor
Israeli smoke munitions were fired by Israeli troops into the northern part of the Gaza Strip on November 22nd
An Israeli soldier returns from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday ahead of the four-day ceasefire
Volunteers provide warm food to soldiers at a fortified observation post on the Gaza border on Wednesday
Smoke from Gaza City fills the sky in the distance as an Israeli tank heads toward the Gaza Strip on Wednesday
Last night, in a dramatic announcement, Netanyahu’s office announced that the ten kidnapped children and mothers who were due to be released tomorrow “will not be released until Friday.”
“Contacts to release our hostages are progressing and ongoing,” National Security Council Director Tzachi Hanegbi said in a statement.
“The start of publication will take place in accordance with the original agreement between the parties and not before Friday.”
Hanegbi gave no further details or mentioned any change to the ceasefire agreed with Hamas and approved by the Israeli Cabinet early Wednesday, which an Israeli official said would come into effect at 10 a.m. Thursday.
His statement also came just minutes after Israeli officials informed journalists that a media center would open in Tel Aviv at noon on Thursday “to report on the return of the hostages.”
Under the approved deal, Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day ceasefire during which Hamas would release at least 50 of the hostages captured in its deadly Oct. 7 attack.
In return, Israel would release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow more humanitarian aid into the coastal area after more than six weeks of bombing, heavy fighting and a devastating siege.
The hostages to be freed are women and children, while the Palestinian prisoners are female and male prisoners aged 18 and younger.
Israel said the exchange would take place in two phases. As part of the ceasefire, 50 hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners are to be released as a first step. If successful, 150 more Palestinian prisoners could be released in a second phase in exchange for another 50 hostages under an extended ceasefire, the Israeli government said.
Netanyahu addressed the families of the kidnapped Israelis on Wednesday, saying he had not stopped thinking about them and their loved ones since the war began. He also assured them that “we will free all hostages held by Hamas.”
He also announced that the ceasefire agreement came about due to “massive military pressure” on Hamas as well as his government’s diplomatic efforts.
He added: “I want to make it clear.” The war continues. The war continues. We will continue until we achieve all of our goals.”
Although the four-day ceasefire marked the first major diplomatic breakthrough in the conflict, Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that the IDF would prepare to continue the war during the ceasefire.
He reiterated: “We are winning and we will continue to fight until we achieve absolute victory.”