“‘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.’

“…So why is Israel’s biggest lobbying organization strongly backing a resolution that doesn’t penalize BDS supporters and is seemingly weak enough to generate support from liberal lawmakers, after years of supporting anti-BDS measures which are much more aggressive?

Much of their reasoning can presumably be found in a recent Twitter thread on the bill from Foundation for Middle East Peace President Lara Friedman. She notes that the resolution was developed after a Middle East policy bill that was introduced by Florida Senator Marco Rubio got stuck in the Senate. Rubio’s bill contains a provision that would have given states the legal right to punish companies if they boycotted Israel.”

In this special episode of The Listening Post, Richard Gizbert travels across the US to examine some of the key moments that have revealed how the discourse on Israel is shifting. Contributors: Noura Erakat – assistant professor, George Mason University; Batya Ungar-Sargon – opinions editor, The Forward; Rashida Tlaib – US Congresswoman, Representative for Michigan’s 13th district; Rebecca Vilkomerson – executive director, Jewish Voice for Peace; Lara Friedman – President, Foundation for Middle East Peace; Marc Lamont Hill – former CNN contributor and Professor, Temple University; Omar Baddar – deputy director, Arab American Institute; George Hale – reporter, KETR radio

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.”

“There has been remarkable consistency of plan, consistency of purpose, and consistency of policy in this administration. People seem to be surprised by this administration’s moves; whether it’s moving the embassy, going after UNRWA, effectively de-recognizing the Palestinian leadership, to shutting down the consulate here in DC – which is effectively ending state-to-state bilateral relations.”

“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.”

“The final panel focused on Gaza’s relationship with Israel, Egypt, and the United States, with panelists representing different perspectives. Lara Friedman, a former U.S. foreign service officer who now heads the Foundation for Middle East Peace, spoke about the state of dependency that the people of Gaza find themselves in, given their reliance on neighboring states for the necessities of life. Ghaith al-Omari, an expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, spoke about the security concerns of Israel, given Hamas’s attacks on Israeli civilians, and stressed the need for all sides to avoid escalations of conflict.”

…The Foundation for Middle East Peace published a chart listing the 17 states whose anti-boycott laws or implementing guidelines penalize businesses that boycott Israel or the territories controlled by Israel, a phrase that applies to the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.