“Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, said that the question of acceptable language on Israel and Palestine often comes down to whether the orator is supportive of Israel or not: ‘It’s never really about what any of them say.’”

“Gottheimer’s letter suggesting additions to the State Department funding bill also proposed halting U.S. support for any international organizations whose conduct ‘constitutes antisemitism’ under a controversial definition crafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association. Even considering that change is striking, and implementing it would be alarming, argued Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace think tank. ‘Gottheimer’s text represents an unprecedented effort to make U.S. activities and relationships in the international arena, including those critical to U.S. national security, conditional on adherence to a hugely controversial definition of antisemitism, the clear focus of which is to suppress and punish criticism of Israel,’ Friedman told HuffPost.”

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week. To subscribe to this report, please click here.…

1. New from FMEP 2. Gaza 3. River to the Sea 4. Region/Diplomacy 5. US Scene 6. Redefining Antisemitism//Lawfare//Media 7. Long Reads/Perspectives New from FMEP FMEP Legislative Round-Up: March…

1. Bills, Resolutions 2. Letters 3. Hearings & Markups 4. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements New: March 29, 2024: SETA Foundation event, The US Policy…

On 3/23/24, President Biden signed into law HR 2882, the “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024,” following passage in the House (vote) and Senate (vote).  HR…

“Now, Netanyahu’s extremist allies are using the pretext of Hamas’s attacks to fundamentally reshape Gaza and Palestine. ‘Israel this time has a different set of objectives,’ Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace told me. ‘They want to take this moment to fundamentally change the paradigm and erase Gaza.'”

“Instead of constituting a substantive shift in US support for Israel, experts say, Democrats’ emboldened critique of Netanyahu should be understood as an attempt to respond to growing voter frustration without changing policy, as the Biden administration remains unwilling to use US aid and arms exports to Israel as leverage to demand a change in behavior. In this context, the choice to focus on Netanyahu ‘is a political decision to avoid outright criticism of Israel’s war conduct,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. For Schumer, in particular, blaming Netanyahu as an individual was a way ‘to avoid the implication that he is lessening his support for the Israeli state or the Israeli people,’ she said. ‘Instead, Schumer is focusing on a man who is unpopular among Democrats to say, ‘See, we are standing up for our values, so voters should stop being mad at us.’’”

“’No one says we need the I.H.R.A. definition so we can go after Nazis talking about killing Jews or classic antisemitic tropes about Jews and media and banks,’ said Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. The definition, rather, ‘is about getting at this other supposed antisemitism.’”

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week. To subscribe to this report, please click here.…