“Although both the Deutch and Lankford bills purport to ‘fix’ the law, critics say they both fall short. ‘In the name of finding justice for American victims of terror, both ‘fixes’ are predicated on the view that, in order for the aid issue to be resolved, some other hook must be found or created to ensure that [the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act’s] fundamental objective is still served: Enabling the PLO and PA to be sued out of existence in US courts,’ said Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.”

In a Twitter thread, Lara Friedman of the think tank Foundation for Middle East Peace said the attempt to define working with the PA as support to terrorism would be an attempt at “tarring” all agencies that engage with it. She wrote: “the entire humanitarian/civil society sector is in the crosshairs.”

But Foundation for Middle East Peace president Lara Friedman said Netanyahu’s pledge should be taken seriously. “I don’t think he’s made any promise nearly as clear as this,” she said. Nevertheless, a White House official said after Netanyahu’s announcement that there was no change in American policy against West Bank annexation.

[Start at 21:30] “Trump Deflects His Own Racism by Claiming the Democrats Are Anti-Semites”

“But anyone who believes that this resolution will in any way resolve or mitigate the bitter political wrangling over BDS has been drinking too much celebratory champagne, said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace — a nonprofit that promotes a two-state solution. ‘You’d have to be delusional to think that this is over,’ said Friedman.”

“‘The resolution is a far-reaching, unambiguous indictment of anyone who boycotts Israel,’ tweeted Foundation for Middle East Peace President Lara Friedman before the bill was passed. ‘Folks who support it are in effect legitimizing the same simplistic narrative that is being used to justify laws quashing free speech…Folks who support it are going to be called hypocrites if they subsequently vote against legislation trying to fight what they have in effect labeled an evil scourge.’

DC Insider spoke with Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, to get closer insight into the progress of the so-called ‘deal of the century,’ and how policymakers are reacting in Washington.

“This is a brazen violation of Americans’ right to free speech,” Foundation for Middle East Peace president Lara Friedman writes at the group’s website. “It is also a McCarthyistic tactic of required self-reporting designed to enable – and legitimize – the U.S. government in building a list of Americans tracking their political views/activities.”

“They’re working openly, and have been for years, to argue there is no distinction between Israel and settlements, that all the land was given to them by God, and that making a distinction between settlements and Israel is anti-Semitic,” said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, a liberal think tank whose work focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The Trump administration has not announced any change in U.S. policy when it comes to entry of Palestinians to the United States,” said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and a former U.S. foreign service officer in Jerusalem. “One [denial] could be just a random happenstance, two could be a coincidence. Three, it’s reasonable to ask whether or not there hasn’t been a de facto shift in U.S. policy that is denying visas to Palestinians to come to the U.S. based on their political views, which would be deeply troubling.”