“In recent years, TikTok has emerged as one of the most influential spaces for Palestinian activists and their supporters, allowing them to reach global audiences with firsthand footage documenting Israeli Occupation war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank. For many users, especially younger ones, the platform has offered an alternative to the framing long dominant in mainstream Western media. Lara Friedman, the president of the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, told +972 Magazine that the political consciousness of a younger generation in the West has been shaped in large part by what they encountered on TikTok: images of war on Gaza and daily violations against Palestinians that bypass traditional media filters. That visibility, she argued, is precisely what has made TikTok a strategic concern for pro-‘Israel’ lobbying groups.”

“…rejecting AIPAC money only ‘doesn’t mean anything’ as a standard for progressive candidates, according to Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘As it becomes clear that AIPAC is going to work around the ‘people don’t want to take our money’ and find other ways to support candidates, it’s really going to be a question of, where do people stand on what are in some ways litmus-test issues for AIPAC?’ Friedman told The Intercept.”

“Merely rejecting AIPAC money will not be enough to serve as the new standard for progressive candidates for long, said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Swearing off the group’s cash ‘doesn’t mean anything,’ on its own, Friedman said. ‘What is going to matter is where candidates, or incumbents who are trying to return to office, where they stand on issues. As it becomes clear that AIPAC is going to work around the ‘people don’t want to take our money’ and find other ways to support candidates, it’s really going to be a question of, where do people stand on what are in some ways litmus-test issues for AIPAC?’”

“…Faced with the evidence of genocide, Zionist apologists ‘can’t explain that away,’ Friedman told +972. ‘So what they’re going to do now is get hold of the means by which that information is spread.’… ‘You’ve got a generation that is going to see a headline, and rather than look at that headline, they’re going to say, ‘I’m going to go look for the video. I want to see it for myself,’’ Friedman told +972. ‘It’s very hard to control the narrative in that kind of era, and it creates a new imperative to control what information is able to be spread.'”

“Lara Friedman, president of the think tank Foundation for Middle East Peace, examined the rise of antisemitism in the United States in the context of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU), a Georgetown academic group that aims to foster interreligious dialogue, hosted the event as a part of its ongoing Gaza lecture series.”

“…’If you take that vote [on the Sanders resolutions] and then you look at what has been an arc of change and evolution on how a lot of members of Congress are talking about Gaza. There’s been a real shift there,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘The question is, does that reflect a genuine shift in policy sensibility and a readiness to really go out on a limb for a principled position? Or does that more reflect a sense of finger in the air and test the winds?’ Friedman says that her reading of many statements from members of Congress repeat the Biden-era formulation of reiterating support for Israel and framing the war strategy as bad for Israeli interests while expressing what she calls ‘cosmetic’ statements of concern for Gazans. Even among those who voted to pause weapons shipments, the accompanying statements suggest that their votes are intended as symbolic opposition to the current humanitarian situation and not necessarily to Israel’s larger bombardment of Gaza…”

“Friedman and her organization have monitored statements from members of Congress on issues related to Israel and Palestine since 2017. Although many lawmakers doubled down on their support for Israel last week and blamed the lack of aid on Hamas, she noticed a shift in the number of lawmakers making statements of support for Palestinians. Many, she said, were voicing their disgust at Israel’s starvation policy. Whether they would back up their statements with votes on the floor to pressure Israel, however, remains in question… ‘Is it that the members are suddenly more courageous, or do they suddenly feel like somebody’s got their back more and have more room to maneuver? Maybe it’s a combination,’ [Lara] Friedman said. ‘Something is changing in the calculation, and that is only good.’”

“…decisions are influenced by a well-funded ecosystem of Israel advocacy groups that amplify alleged antisemitic incidents in the media and appeal to institutions to punish the accused. ‘The immediate, default media framing is to give credence to the allegation that speech critical of Israel or critical of Zionism is antisemitism,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘This has everybody on the defensive. Nobody wants to be accused of supporting or enabling antisemitism.’ DA offices have received significant pressure from local pro-Israel groups to apply hate crime charges to protest-related incidents—and police and prosecutors have expended significant resources on such cases, even when they involve relatively minor allegations.”

“Many of the new state laws build on previous resolutions endorsing the IHRA definition, integrating it into codes of conduct at universities and public K-12 schools. That could give administrators more leeway to classify ambiguous incidents as antisemitic — and discipline students accordingly. ‘Once you’ve adopted the IHRA definition, there really isn’t any question. You’re going to shut down all sorts of free speech,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘You say ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine is free’ — done, you’re guilty of antisemitism. You say that Israel is a racist state — done, antisemitism.’”

(interview with FMEP’s Lara Friedman)

excerpt: “…This piece of legislation is sort of ripping the mask off. There’s no pretense. Initially, it was clearly focused on Palestinians. The intent behind this law is to make it easier to simply strip away the 501(c)(3) status of organizations for disfavored political views and speech.”