“…’If you take that vote [on the Sanders resolutions] and then you look at what has been an arc of change and evolution on how a lot of members of Congress are talking about Gaza. There’s been a real shift there,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘The question is, does that reflect a genuine shift in policy sensibility and a readiness to really go out on a limb for a principled position? Or does that more reflect a sense of finger in the air and test the winds?’ Friedman says that her reading of many statements from members of Congress repeat the Biden-era formulation of reiterating support for Israel and framing the war strategy as bad for Israeli interests while expressing what she calls ‘cosmetic’ statements of concern for Gazans. Even among those who voted to pause weapons shipments, the accompanying statements suggest that their votes are intended as symbolic opposition to the current humanitarian situation and not necessarily to Israel’s larger bombardment of Gaza…”

“Friedman and her organization have monitored statements from members of Congress on issues related to Israel and Palestine since 2017. Although many lawmakers doubled down on their support for Israel last week and blamed the lack of aid on Hamas, she noticed a shift in the number of lawmakers making statements of support for Palestinians. Many, she said, were voicing their disgust at Israel’s starvation policy. Whether they would back up their statements with votes on the floor to pressure Israel, however, remains in question… ‘Is it that the members are suddenly more courageous, or do they suddenly feel like somebody’s got their back more and have more room to maneuver? Maybe it’s a combination,’ [Lara] Friedman said. ‘Something is changing in the calculation, and that is only good.’”

“…decisions are influenced by a well-funded ecosystem of Israel advocacy groups that amplify alleged antisemitic incidents in the media and appeal to institutions to punish the accused. ‘The immediate, default media framing is to give credence to the allegation that speech critical of Israel or critical of Zionism is antisemitism,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘This has everybody on the defensive. Nobody wants to be accused of supporting or enabling antisemitism.’ DA offices have received significant pressure from local pro-Israel groups to apply hate crime charges to protest-related incidents—and police and prosecutors have expended significant resources on such cases, even when they involve relatively minor allegations.”

“Many of the new state laws build on previous resolutions endorsing the IHRA definition, integrating it into codes of conduct at universities and public K-12 schools. That could give administrators more leeway to classify ambiguous incidents as antisemitic — and discipline students accordingly. ‘Once you’ve adopted the IHRA definition, there really isn’t any question. You’re going to shut down all sorts of free speech,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘You say ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine is free’ — done, you’re guilty of antisemitism. You say that Israel is a racist state — done, antisemitism.’”

(interview with FMEP’s Lara Friedman)

excerpt: “…This piece of legislation is sort of ripping the mask off. There’s no pretense. Initially, it was clearly focused on Palestinians. The intent behind this law is to make it easier to simply strip away the 501(c)(3) status of organizations for disfavored political views and speech.”

“Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, said it would be ‘interesting’ to see how Republican leaders would deal with staunchly pro-Israel measures like the ‘nonprofit killer’ going forward. ‘They on the one hand likely see this as a fun opportunity to embarrass Democrats – whose opposition will be framed as anti-Israel or enabling terror and antisemitism – and on the other hand they have to worry about principled opposition from within their own ranks,’ Friedman told Al Jazeera in a statement.”

“That framing isn’t just offensive but also historically pervasive. For decades, mainstream U.S. politicians have treated Palestinian rights and aspirations as a third rail, rarely acknowledged without caveats or apologies. Trump’s remark strips away the pretense. In his worldview, to be “a Palestinian” is not to be a person with history, homeland, and legitimate grievances—but to be the other side of an imagined binary in which Israel, and unquestioning support for it, is always the moral high ground. ‘This isn’t just a rhetorical misstep,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘It perpetuates a toxic narrative that equates Palestinian identity with enmity and delegitimizes the very notion of justice or self-determination for Palestinians.’”

“‘Canary Mission was one of the first groups to use doxxing to go after the Palestine movement. Other groups are seeing how destroying people’s lives through this doxing works, and they’re emulating it,’ said Falaneh. Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, said ‘it’s not a surprise that, as it became normalized to treat criticism of Israel as antisemitic or support of terrorism, there is now an escalation of those methods.'”

“Mehdi talks to a leading expert on antisemitism [FMEP’s Lara Friedman] about the demonization of liberal Jews, the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and the crackdown on free speech when it comes to Israel.”

“Mondoweiss U.S. correspondent Michael Arria spoke with Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) President Lara Friedman. Friedman’s weekly Legislative Round-Up is required reading for anyone who wants to stay informed on the latest bills in Congress and the discussion in Washington, DC. In the conversation Friedman discusses Trump’s pro-Israel Executive Orders and what anti-Palestinian bills people should watch during this congressional session.”