“Americans who self-identify as Jewish have historically voted Democratic. According to Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, ‘Survey data regularly confirms that the connection between American Jewish voters (non-Orthodox) and the Democratic Party is grounded in a worldview that prioritizes a set of issues and values – ones that today are embodied in this party.’ That includes prioritizing issues such as health care, gun violence, Social Security, and Medicare. Exit polls in 2016 found that 71 percent of Jewish voters supported Clinton. However, RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said in an interview this week that he predicts Trump will fare better with Jewish voters in November.”

“While the public response in the United States to this controversy has been largely outrage, some question whether it does constitute anti-Semitism at all, suggesting that Nafar’s statements are satirical in nature due to the polarizing nature of the conflict. UNC junior Fouad Abu-Hijleh told The Daily Tar Heel, ‘When he said, ‘This is my anti-Semitic song,’ I think he was alluding to that, like, if you criticize Israel, people are going to call you an anti-Semite. That’s how I perceived it as a Palestinian.’ Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and a self-identifying liberal Zionist, stated that the performance remained within the bounds of appropriate academic discourse and pointed out that the conference included criticism of Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, as well as of U.S. policy on Gaza.”

“‘It is not new that AIPAC is giving a stage to voices that are far to the right of U.S. policy or of the mainstream U.S. Jewish community,’ said Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. The conference has repeatedly hosted Pastor John Hagee, who has said Hitler was fulfilling God’s will by pushing Jews to move to Israel and called Hurricane Katrina a punishment for a gay pride rally, Friedman pointed out. Hagee founded an influential pro-Israel network called Christians United for Israel… ‘AIPAC has behaved for the entire life of the peace process in a manner that suggests that the current policies of the Israeli government and the Trump administration are in no way problematic for its worldview,’ Friedman said.”

“AJC’s polls ‘reveal that the majority of US Jews either disapprove or strongly disapprove of Trump’s handling of US-Israel relations,’ according to a report by Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.”

“For decades, U.S. presidents have sought to avoid the I-word, fearing it would needlessly antagonize Israel. Even President Jimmy Carter—perhaps the most pro-Palestinian occupant of the White House in 50 years—steered clear of using the word, though he did make it clear that Israel’s construction of Jewish settlements on land inhabited by Arabs before the 1967 Arab-Israeli War was ‘contrary to the Geneva Convention, that occupied territories should not be changed by the establishment of permanent settlements by the occupying power.’ ‘The use of ‘illegal’ was clearly an official expression of Carter administration policy, even if Carter didn’t shout out the word in a speech,’ according to Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. But Carter’s administration likely went further than any other U.S. administration in asserting the illegality of settlements. Friedman, who compiled a detailed modern history of presidential positions on settlements, said it was President Ronald Reagan who first proposed a freeze on new settlements in an effort to promote peace. Reagan, however, never characterized them as illegal. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama issued calls for an end to Israel’s occupation of Arab lands seized since 1967—but didn’t call them illegal.”

“As Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, pointed out early in the Trump presidency, the administration’s policy appeared to be designed to roll back the clock to the 1980s, when the idea of a Palestinian state was a non-starter in Washington. It wouldn’t be altogether surprising to see the Trump administration, especially if it’s reelected, take further radical measures like re-designating the PLO a terrorist organization, in order to up the ante considerably. They have already taken steps to weaponize anti-Semitism through the law, to crack down on legitimate debate on college campuses, and to criminalize free speech actions like boycotting Israel.”

“As Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, pointed out early in the Trump presidency, the administration’s policy appeared to be designed to roll back the clock to the 1980s, when the idea of a Palestinian state was a non-starter in Washington. It wouldn’t be altogether surprising to see the Trump administration, especially if it’s reelected, take further radical measures like re-designating the PLO a terrorist organization, in order to up the ante considerably. They have already taken steps to weaponize anti-Semitism through the law, to crack down on legitimate debate on college campuses, and to criminalize free speech actions like boycotting Israel.”

Worth a Look: Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, analyzes the significance of the Jewish vote in the 2020 election for the Arab Center Washington DC. Friedman notes the vast differences between what Jewish voters want and what Jewish political funders like Sheldon Adelson want, and pays attention to a lesser-known aspect of Jewish campaigning: the down-ballot. “Forcing Democrats to constantly fend off accusations of being anti-Israel or antisemitic siphons off campaigns’ time, energy, political capital and funds,” she writes.

The cynical among us might conclude, with Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, that “peace between Israelis and Palestinians is not a consideration. It is just cosmetics.” The US administration’s earlier actions – endorsement of Israel’s West Bank settlements, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, and cutting funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (which supports Palestinian refugees) – certainly suggest as much. As Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, put it in 2018: “It’s very clear that the overarching goal is to eliminate the Palestinian refugees as an issue by defining them out of existence.” Kushner’s proposal does the same to the Palestinians as a whole and Palestine as a functioning entity.

Book recommendation from Lara Friedman, president, Foundation for Middle East Peace — Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erekat; Lords of the Land: The War Over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar; Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo by Seth Anziska; Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump by Khaled Elgindy; The Accidental Empire by Gershom Gorenberg; Zealots for Zion: Inside Israel’s West Bank Settlement Movement by Robert I. Friedman; Dear Brothers: The West Bank Jewish Underground by Haggai Segal; The Yellow Wind by David Grossman