A former member of the Obama administration’s National Security Council was caught on camera harassing a food truck vendor in New York City, saying that killing 4,000 Palestinian children “wasn’t enough.”
Stuart Seldowitz was identified online after videos of him harassing the vendor about Islam were posted to X. He later admitted to The Daily Beast that it was him in the videos. “The bottom line is, yes it’s me,” he said.
Seldowitz served as the acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate under Obama and was the deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003.
In recent years, Seldowitz has been listed as working for Gotham Government Relations, a lobbying firm. After the videos surfaced, the firm said it cut all relations with Seldowitz.
Seldowitz berated the vendor about Islam, repeatedly calling the prophet Muhhamed a “rapist.” He threatened to report the vendor to the authorities if he was in the United States illegally.
When the vendor said he does not speak English, Seldowitz replied, “That’s why you’re selling food in a food cart, because you’re ignorant. But you should learn English, it’ll help you when they deport you back to Egypt, and then Mukhabarat (secret police) wants to interview you.”
Seldowitz said the video did not show the whole altercation and claimed the vendor expressed support for Hamas. At one point, Seldowitz accused the vendor of supporting the killing of “little children.” The vendor replied, “You kill children not me.”
Then Seldowitz said, “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what, it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough.”