Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has slammed the US State Department for halting all visas for Gaza children seeking treatment in the US and for letting an Israeli top government official accused of abusing minors flee the country.
"We need to be the America that allows war-torn children to come here for life-saving surgeries and the America that never releases a foreign child sex predator that our great LEOs caught," Taylor Greene, known by her initials (MTG), said on X on Tuesday.
"But in this circumstance, those war-torn children are from Gaza, and this foreign child sex predator is from Israel and works directly for Netanyahu," she added, hinting at why both decisions were made.
MTG said it's not anti-Semitic to bring back Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, PM Benjamin Netanyahu's Cyber Executive Director, to be tried, and also letting Palestinian children seek medical treatment in the US, brushing off the claims by far-right figures that Gaza children are US refugees.
"Would it be antisemitic to drag Netanyahu's Cyber Executive Director back and prosecute this pos to the full extent of the law, and at the same time let Palestinian kids who had their limbs and bodies blown apart receive surgeries in America?" she said.
She questioned when did "America's heart grow so cold" to refuse innocent children privately funded surgeries.
"Wouldn't we allow Israeli children if they were the ones needing surgery? Or war-torn children from any other country?" she added.
She also said that the US became a "subservient to Israel" to immediately release a man accused of child abuse, highlighting the double standards in the US foreign policy, saying if the accused were Mexican or Chinese, they wouldn't have been let go.
"Would we do that with a Mexican child sex predator? Chinese child sex predator? Any other country's child sex predator?" she said.
Tom Artiom Alexandrovich
Previously, the State Department denied playing a role in the release of Alexandrovich, who was arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of soliciting abuse of minors in the US.
"He did not claim diplomatic immunity and was released by a state judge pending a court date. Any claims that the US government intervened are false," the State Department said.
The court records reviewed by Reuters show a $10,000 bond was posted in Alexandrovich's case at the Henderson Detention Center, southeast of Las Vegas, on August 7.
Netanyahu's office downplayed the arrest, saying that Alexandrovich was only "questioned" and "returned to Israel as scheduled."
The case, however, drew backlash and accusations against the US government of favouritism in cases involving Israeli officials.
Visas halted for Gaza children
Separately, the State Department said it issued a halt to all visas for Palestinians from Gaza.
The move followed claims by far-right Islamophobic conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer that Palestinians from the blockaded enclave are refugees in the US.
Loomer in particular targeted HEAL Palestine, a charity organisation based in the US.
The charity denied that there was any refugee programme, and the group's efforts were focused on a medical treatment programme only.
Loomer told the New York Times she spoke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to warn about what she called a threat from "Islamic invaders."
