this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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A lobbying group has cut ties with an ex-adviser to former President Barack Obama after videos surfaced that show the man making Islamophobic comments and threats to a food cart employee in New York City.

The videos, posted on X (formerly Twitter) by a Columbia University student, shows Stuart Seldowitz asking someone off camera, “Did you rape your daughter like Muhammad did?” and saying that killing 4,000 Palestinian children “wasn’t enough.”

Seldowitz was acting director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate under Obama and was deputy director/senior political officer in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003. More recently, he served as foreign affairs chair for Gotham Government Relations, which announced his new role in a press release in November 2022.

On Tuesday afternoon, Gotham announced on Twitter that it had cut ties with Seldowitz.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fuck...ing...HELL

Often when a headline has only part of a sentence, it was taken out of context so I watched the video.

narrators voice "it was not taken out of context"

I personally have strong dislike of all fundamentalist religious teachings but the things this guy says are despicable. We don't have to respect someone's opinion but we have to respect their right to hold it, and saying vile shit like this only furthers divisions.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly the context makes it even worse. It's not like he was voicing an abhorrent opinion that he just assumed would remain private. He said this while accosting an innocent food cart vendor with Islamaphobic comments and threats.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah, not trying to make excuses for him as he's probably just a vile POS but this is like mental breakdown territory.

Maybe he personally lost someone close to him on 7th Oct and now he's taking it out on someone he perceives as 'Arab'. Even if that was the case though there's no excuse for this kind of hate speech, go grieve in private or with family / friends.

I hate so much that there are people like him out in the world. Many of us are desperately trying to find ways to come together and they make it so much more difficult.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There’s just so much horrifying stuff about this story. The heinous stuff that he said, the fact that these videos clearly were recorded on different days so he had been at it for a while, or the fact that he was high up in the state department working on US-Israeli and US-Afghanistan policies while having such terrible views.

It’s also weird that he’s trying to insult this poor working man about his religion but not even pronouncing his Arabic evidence properly.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah well when you go crazy in old age you go crazy with what you know. I guess it you are high up in the State Department on the Afghan desk or whatever, berating immigrants might be your brand of crazy. Dude needs a padded room, anyhow, maybe some deprogramming.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yea everyone is like "we cannot condone his vile actions" bla bla. Well it is a bit too late for that isn't? Not only did you condone, you clearly fucking rewarded it. It is terrifying to think how many more such men and women are involved in very critical world politics roles.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It really is full "mask off" for some people because of Israel's ongoing genocide. I hope this fucker never works again.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It took a while for the world to turn on South Africa, too. Idk if it will happen here but I hope it does soon and the suffering stops.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Boomers are scratching their heads in confusion because younger people are starting to sour on Israel and rightly so. It’s not enough to force a policy change in the US, but give it a few years.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

This guy was in the US intelligence service, and he didn't know that you're not supposed to fuck with the food cart folks?