“…as the U.N. Secretary General warns that Israel’s plan to annex 30% of the West Bank will constitute a “most serious violation of international law”, we speak with Lara Friedman, the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace who was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer serving in Jerusalem and Washington and is a leading authority on the Israeli-Arab conflict and the settlements. She joins us to discuss how Trump’s ambassador to Israel is a leading proponent of the settlements and has been working with Netanyahu to implement his July 1 plan that could spell the end of a Palestinian state and a renewed flareup of violence.”

Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace weighs in on thousands of Israelis protesting against Benjamin Netanyahu’s West Bank annexation plan.

“A New York-based pro-Israel group has latched onto President Donald Trump’s December anti-Semitism order in the first known legal maneuver invoking the recent executive edict to challenge a pro-Palestinian organization’s tax-exempt status… ‘Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, who has written extensively about what she calls Abrams’ ‘legal activism,’ said that the New York lawyer seems to be ‘trying to establish a novel interpretation of US law.’ In effect, Friedman said, ‘Abrams appears to be telling the IRS that tax-exempt status in itself should be viewed as a form of federal financial assistance, and that therefore the EO should apply.’”

“‘The fact that this is the single issue they have put in the coalition agreement bar the coronavirus is significant… Also Gantz has no way of stopping it even if there is a vote,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and a former US foreign service officer. ‘The only way this doesn’t move forward is if Bibi throws himself on his sword, which means taking on his right-wing supporters in Israel and in the US.’ If Trump loses the US elections, Israel will have lost its most amenable US president.”

“The memorandum of understanding ‘was based on the understanding that the level of aid it established was a ceiling, not a floor; the bills seek to legislate the opposite,’ said Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.”

“Now that the embassy has been moved, many in Congress will surely argue that the intent of the law was to keep the embassy in Jerusalem, even though there is nothing in the bill that explicitly forbids a president from moving it back. And, as long-time observer of Jerusalem affairs, Lara Friedman told me, ‘If Congress wanted to prevent the Embassy being moved back to Jerusalem, or wanted to put in place penalties for such an action, a new law would be required (one that I have no doubt would pass easily if it looked like a president was seriously contemplating such a reversal).’”

“‘The fundamental message of this episode,’ argues Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace…’is that Congress is not going to do anything if Israel annexes.’ A staffer at an activist organization who has followed the letter’s progress puts it more pungently: ‘Bibi and [Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron] Dermer must be laughing their asses off.’”

“In this special Election 2020 series of The President’s Inbox, James M. Lindsay sits down each week with two experts with different views on how the United States should handle its foreign policy challenges. This week, he discusses the future of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Michael Doran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, and Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.”

“The backlash against Tlaib as anti-Israel it isn’t only ridiculous; it’s hypocritical and disingenuous. And attacks like these almost always intentionally omit identical instances on the other side, and miss the opportunity to use our national, cultural symbols for the greater good. For one thing, a number of Israeli institutions officially display the same map that sparked uproar in order to illustrate the borders of the state of Israel. On Twitter, Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, named a few: Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, Geological survey and ministries of agriculture, foreign affairs and environment.”

“Lara Friedman, who took over from Duss as president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, which focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, described Duss as operating from a deep place of empathy in his views on foreign policy. ‘For people who are only able to have compassion for one side, whatever side they are coming from, I think someone like Matt is going to be challenging,’ she said. ‘And I hope they are challenged by it.’”