Aformer State Department employee in recent weeks was recorded harassing a halal food vendor in Manhattan, calling the man a “terrorist,” The New York Times reports. Stuart Seldowitz, who held positions in both Democratic and Republican administrations including deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs, was seen in several videos posted to X/Twitter, taking pictures of the vendor and pelting him with Islamophobic comments. After a brief, tense exchange about children being killed, Seldowitz tells the man, “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough.” The recordings of the encounters went viral online as tensions have intensified between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups across the country since the beginning of Israel’s war on Hamas.
The video clips show Seldowitz returning to the same vendor over several days — once at night and twice during the day — and refusing to leave each time. In one clip, he’s heard saying, “It’s a free country — it’s not like Egypt” and calling the vendor “ignorant” for not speaking English before continuing to make inflammatory comments about the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad. While the Times was unable to reach the vendor for comment, Seldowitz told the outlet that the back-and-forths started after he asked the vendor if he was Egyptian. As the conversation continued, Seldowitz said the man expressed support for Hamas. No such claims, however, are shown in any of the public videos. Seldowitz also expressed regret for the remarks he made toward the vendor, said he returned to the location to ask if the man was “still a supporter of Hamas” and insisted he is not Islamophobic. “This is disgusting, hateful, and New York won’t tolerate it,” New York Attorney General Letitia James tweeted of Seldowitz’s conduct. “We won’t stand for Islamophobia or any kind of hate in our state.”
Second group of Gaza hostages set to be released after delay regarding truce agreement
Sources say that Hamas’ armed wing held back their hostages until Israel allowed aid trucks to enter northern Gaza
After a four-day cease-fire that began on Friday morning, followed by the release of thirteen Israeli civilians and eleven foreign nationals, a second batch of Gaza hostage releases was delayed on Saturday due to a dispute over the terms of a truce agreement, according to Qatari government officials.
Per reporting from Politico, “Hamas’ armed wing said it would not release the second round of hostages until Israel held up its side of the deal: allowing aid trucks to enter the besieged northern Gaza region.” Following this hitch, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “held an assessment of the situation to verify that the second phase is proceeding as planned” and Israel maintains that the agreement was not violated.
“After a delay, obstacles to release of prisoners were overcome through Qatari-Egyptian contacts with both sides, and 39 Palestinian civilians will be released tonight, while 13 Israeli hostages will leave Gaza in addition to 4 foreigners,” Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Dr. Majid bin Mohammed Al Ansari wrote in a message posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s done when I say it’s done”: Santos drags House Ethics Committee in X Spaces convo
Over the course of a three-hours-long X Spaces conversation on Friday, Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., dragged the House Ethics Committee and many of his peers in Congress up one side of the internet and down the other while addressing his time as a former “it girl,” as he calls himself, expressing the opinion that he’s been made into both a punchline and a punching bag during his first and possibly only term.
Speaking to host Monica Matthews, Santos said he quickly went from the win of being the first openly-gay Republican elected to Congress to someone whose name is used primarily for “click-bait,” admitting to making mistakes, and saying that he won’t live long enough to apologize for all of them, at this point. But on that subject, he furthers that resigning would be admitting to everything that’s on the 56-page report released by the ethics committee on November 16, and he’s not about to do that, saying, “I’m not leaving. Come hell or high water, it’s done when I say it’s done.” But although he’s not leaving, he also has no plans to run for re-election, saying he doesn’t “want to work with a bunch of hypocrites,” meaning other members of Congress who he says are “more worried about getting drunk every night with the next lobbyist that they’re going to screw and pretend like none of us know what’s going on.”
“If you want to expel me, I’ll wear it like a badge of honor,” Santos furthered. “I’ll be the sixth expelled member of Congress.”
