“‘The entire ‘speak-no-criticism-of-Israel’ industry is erupting in outrage and demanding retribution for a history professor’s speech at the UMich graduation,’ said Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, who added that those seeking to discipline Peterson were effectively making a ‘demand for a complete Israel-exception to free speech.’”

“What makes this difficult to navigate is the concern for antisemitism and the ongoing discussion around our current definitions. The conversation and strategy for addressing Israel’s war crimes is complicated by bad-faith criticism on the Right and the prevailing definition of antisemitism, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism has been adopted by 35 U.S. states. Writing for Jewish Currents in 2020, Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, observed that parts of the IHRA definition conflate antisemitism with criticism of Israel and opposition to Zionism. ‘There exists today a veritable cottage industry of organizations dedicated to promoting the IHRA definition as a legally-mandated litmus test, designed to delegitimize if not criminalize criticism and activism on Israel, and especially boycotts.’ This conflation is not only inaccurate but also harmful to Jews, since it can restrict their freedom to criticize the state of Israel when they believe such criticism is necessary.”

“Mr Malinowski was seen by many as relatively moderate on Israel. ‘They are being absolutists and it’s backfiring,’ says Matt Bennett of Third Way, a think-tank. Top Democrats are swearing off AIPAC money. None of this appears to faze the group. In a social-media post celebrating its victories in Illinois, it declared that ‘being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics’. If that were so, says Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, another think-tank, it would not shy away from making that case to voters. AIPAC says that “like many groups” it will “continue to use different tools to engage in races this cycle”. But its use of front groups places it alongside industries such as oil, tobacco and crypto, which have deployed similar tactics. The added risk for AIPAC is that this approach may reinforce antisemitic tropes about covert influence over policymaking—at a time when such views are already gaining ground.”

“In New Jersey, AIPAC’s super PAC spent heavily against Tom Malinowski in a Democratic primary. According to The New York Times, the move drew more public attention to AIPAC’s influence than intended. Former NJ Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer said the spending left a ‘sour taste’ among residents. Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, cautioned that rejecting AIPAC alone may not be enough: ‘It’s unclear if [candidates] will keep that standard by rejecting support from other organizations — chiefly but not limited to Democratic Majority for Israel.'”

“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…”