Barack Obama’s former National Security Council director has claimed he is not Islamophobic after shocking footage showed him berating a halal vendor.
Stuart Seldowitz issued a half-hearted apology on Tuesday night for unleashing on the street cart owner in New York City amid the war between Israel and Hamas.
The 64-year-old admitted ‘it’s probably me’ in the videos but insisted ‘I don’t think I’m an Islamophobic guy’ following the attack on East 83rd Street this week.
Shocking footage emerged on Tuesday of Seldowitz telling the vendor ‘if we killed 4,000 Palestinian children, it wasn’t enough’.
He also asked if the victim ‘raped his daughter like Mohammed and even threatened to get him deported to Egypt during the sick tirade.
The New York-based firm he was working with, Gotham Government Relations, ‘ended all affiliation’ with him and offered to represent the vendor in any lawsuits.
Barack Obama ‘s former director of the National Security Council says ‘it’s probably me’ seen unleashing an Islamophobic attack on a street vendor but says ‘I don’t think I’m an Islamaphobic guy’
Gotham Government Relations, a New York-based firm, ‘ended all affiliation’ with Stuart Seldowitz, 64, over the videos
Speaking to City & State Tuesday night, Seldowitz, who was deputy director in the US State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003, offered a brief apology.
‘I regret the whole thing happened and I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘But you know, in the heat of the moment, I said things that probably I shouldn’t have said.’
He said ‘I did have an argument with a food vendor. It is quite possible that it’s me. I mean, I’ve not seen the video, but I believe it’s probably me.’
But despite going on a rant regarding the vendor’s belief in the Quran, he doesn’t believe he has any problem with Muslims.
‘If I had to do it all over again, I would not have raised the religious aspect,’ Seldowitz said.
‘I don’t think I’m an Islamophobic guy. I’ve spoken up for equal treatment of Muslims on numerous occasions with numerous different people.’
‘You support killing little children,’ Seldowitz says and takes a photo of the vendor, telling him to smile. He asks him: ‘Did you rape your daughter like Mohammed did?’
Seldowitz refers to the man as a ‘rapist’ and calls him ‘ignorant’ for his lack of English, then going on a tirade about the Quran.
‘What do you speak? You speak Arabic, the language of the Quran, the holy Quran. That some people use as a toilet,’ he says.
‘What do you think of that? People who use the Quran as a toilet. Does it bother you? Does it bother you? Tell me the truth? You don’t speak English? That’s too bad.’
‘That’s why you’re selling food in in a food cart, because you’re ignorant, but you should learn English. It’ll help you when they deport you back to Egypt.’
The original video, lasting over two minutes, shows Seldowitz speaking to a halal cart vendor, using slurs for Egyptians and then saying intelligence agents in Egypt ‘will get your parents’
Seldowitz said that he’s had several arguments with the vendor at the cart, which an employee of the establishment confirmed to DailyMail.com Tuesday night.
‘Yes, I went back because I pass that food cart regularly and I went back and had other arguments,’ he explained.
Letitia James, Attorney General of New York, said on X: ‘This is disgusting, hateful, and New York won’t tolerate it. We won’t stand for Islamophobia or any kind of hate in our state.’
Gotham Government Relations claimed Seldowitz hadn’t worked there for years, though Vice claimed he was hired in 2022 as Foreign Affairs Chair.
‘I haven’t done work with Gotham for a very long time,’ Seldowitz claimed.
‘I had a high opinion of the people at Gotham up until I found out that they had issued this statement. I considered the people at Gotham to be friends, and I haven’t had a chance to speak to them, or to try to speak to them as to why they felt the need to issue this 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 he’ll help the vendors should they take him to court.
‘By the way, I’ll represent the food vendor pro bono if he wants to bring a lawsuit against Stuart Seldowitz,’ he said. ‘I’m absolutely outraged by this video.’
His LinkedIn page shows a stint as Acting Director of the National Security Council South Asia Directorate from February 2009 to January 2011 under President Obama.
He also says, in relation to Israel’s response to the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people, that ‘if we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids? It wasn’t enough.’
Seldowitz has also worked as a journalist – editing for Bloomberg News briefly – a strategist and a life insurance agent, according to his LinkedIn page.
However, Northwestern Mutual – whom he listed as a current employer on that page – said on X earlier Thursday: ‘We have confirmed this individual is not contracted by or affiliated with Northwestern Mutual.’
Left-wing journalist Matt Binder claimed that Seldowitz has served as an agent for the State Department under five different presidents.
According to his bio at Gotham – which has since been removed – he is a three-time winner of the State Department’s Superior Honour Award.
Tommy Vietor, host of popular liberal podcast Pod Save America and former spokesperson for Obama and the NSC, clarified his role in a post on X.
‘He was a state department employee for 30 years who got detailed to the NSC during the Obama administration, not a direct hire. But horribly embarrassing for the US government to be associated this guy in any way.’
In the BitChute interview, he claims that people have a hard time understanding the conflict because of their inability to relate to the Arab and Muslim world.
‘Their culture, their religion, their history is so different than most of us.’
Left-wing journalist Matt Binder claimed that Seldowitz has served as an agent for the State Department under five different presidents
‘He was a state department employee for 30 years who got detailed to the NSC during the Obama administration, not a direct hire,’ said ex-Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor. ‘But horribly embarrassing for the US government to be associated this guy in any way.’
He adds that he believes Hamas, based on his readings of their charter, ‘their eventual goal is frankly the creation of an Islamic state and Islamic caliphate throughout the Middle East and even beyond the Middle East.’
‘Hamas is and was an organization that was not interested in reaching a peace agreement with Israel, not interested in a compromise, not interested in negotiating,’ he said.
‘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 is not just true of Israel.’
He added that Hamas had been training for the attack for over two years and called their plan ‘very sophisticated, very effective’ and that they were ‘pretty smart guys,’ who carried out the attack because Palestinians felt that the west had forgotten them in the wake of the Abraham Accords under President Trump.
While he had some praise for the intelligence of Hamas, at one point in the interview he said: ‘We used to joke in my time in the State Department that the Middle East is quickly entering the 14th century’
He also says he was ‘very greatly surprised’ and ‘encouraged’ that ‘nobody’ in America or Europe was saying that what Israel had done in response is a war crime. At the time, only 1,000 people had been killed in Palestine
DailyMail.com has reached out to Gotham, Seldowitz and the State Department for comment.
Israel and Hamas on Tuesday appeared close to a deal to temporarily halt their devastating six-week war for dozens of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip to be freed in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
But as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Cabinet for a vote, he vowed to resume the Israeli offensive against Hamas as soon as the truce ends.
‘We are at war, and we will continue the war,’ he said. ‘We will continue until we achieve all our goals.’
The Israeli Cabinet was expected to vote on a plan that would halt Israel’s offensive in Gaza for several days in exchange for the release of about 50 of the 240 hostages held by Hamas.
Israel has vowed to continue the war until it destroys Hamas’ military capabilities and returns all hostages.
Hamas predicted a Qatari-mediated deal could be reached in ‘the coming hours’.
Mr Netanyahu acknowledged that the Cabinet faced a tough decision, but supporting the ceasefire was the right thing to do.
The prime minister appeared to have enough support to pass the measure, despite opposition from some hard-line ministers.
Mr Netanyahu said that during the lull, intelligence efforts will be maintained, allowing the army to prepare for the next stages of battle. He said the battle would continue until ‘Gaza will not threaten Israel’.
The comments came as Israel and Hamas appeared close to a deal to temporarily halt their devastating six-week war so that dozens of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip could be freed in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
A woman plasters photos of Israelis missing and held captive in Gaza as officials are said to be considering a deal to secure the release of some hostages
Fighting in the Gaza Strip, now in its seventh week, has shifted to the Jabaliya refugee camp
Hamas predicted a Qatari-mediated deal could be reached in ‘the coming hours’, while Mr Netanyahu was convening top decision-makers to discuss the matter.
‘We are advancing,’ the prime minister told troops during a visit earlier Tuesday to a training base. ‘I hope there will be good news soon.’
The announcement came as Israeli troops battled Palestinian militants in an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza and around hospitals overcrowded with patients and sheltering families.
Mr Netanyahu’s office said the special three-member War Cabinet met on Tuesday and would be followed by meetings of his Security Cabinet, a forum of senior security officials, and the full Cabinet.
There was no word on whether a vote would take place and details of a deal were not released.
Israeli media reported that an agreement would include a five-day halt in Israel’s offensive in Gaza and the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for some 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Israel’s Channel 12 TV said the first releases would take place Thursday or Friday and continue for several days.
Talks have repeatedly stalled. But even if a deal is reached, it would not mean an end to the war, which erupted on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants stormed across the border into southern Israel and killed at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped some 240 others.