Former White House adviser Seldowitz shocked by his statements on the death of Palestinian children – Rossiyskaya Gazeta

A Manhattan-based city government relations firm said it would cut all ties with Stuart Seldowitz following a video of him harassing a street vendor on the Upper East Side. The former politician served as deputy director of the US State Department’s Bureau of Israeli and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003, and then on the National Security Council during the Obama administration.

He was caught by eyewitnesses taunting and threatening a Manhattan salesman, making several lewd and shocking statements. In particular, he said that more Palestinian children should die in the Gaza Strip, Al-Jazeera reports.

He also insulted the Prophet Muhammad and threatened to use “his government connections” to mobilize Egypt’s secret police against the seller, accusing him of “terrorism.”

Eyewitnesses did not immediately recognize the aggressive man as a former diplomat. “This man in a green jacket was cursing and harassing a halal cart vendor at 83rd and 2nd Avenue in New York City. Does anyone know who this man is? We plan to notify authorities,” a witness to the incident wrote.

Seldowitz was identified by city and state. A halal kitchen worker could soon take legal action, The Guardian reports. The firm where Seldowitz previously worked offered the seller free legal services. The lobbying firm for which Seldowitz was a consultant said it had cut ties with him, calling the former politician’s statements racist and his actions demeaning by the firm’s standards.