There are signs that U.S. opinion might be shifting on Israel and its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories. Mehdi Hasan interviews FMEP’s Lara Friedman and Marc Lamont Hill.

Friedman said that for Republicans, “any Democratic opposition to these bills over concerns about freedom of speech will end with a statement bashing Democrats for being supposedly ‘anti-Israel”. She added that “so long as progressives allow the term ‘pro-Israel’ to be defined by Netnayahu and his supporters, there is no win for them on this. Until they take the initiative and take back the definition of what it means to be pro-Israel, this will be a losing argument for them.”

The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald quotes Lara Friedman on the anti-boycott laws that are proliferating at the federal and state levels.

“An effort to now use this massacre to move legislation on the Hill that literally has nothing to do with the kind of anti-Semitism that was at play in this massacre, but is about trying to shut down criticism of Israel and activism related to Israel, seems opportunistic and cynical,” said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, compiled statements from 10 legislators in her weekly legislative roundup, including Jewish and black Democrats and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the Democratic whip.

Lara Friedman participates on a panel convened by the Center for American Progress

“They took Jerusalem off table, now they are taking refugees off the table,” Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, told Al-Monitor, referring to the Trump administration.

“For folks who naively believe we’re simplifying the Palestinian issue, they are not taking seriously the power of narrative and grievances,” Lara Friedman says. “How long have Jews held fast to ‘next year in Jerusalem’?”

“It’s very clear that the overarching goal here is to eliminate the Palestinian refugees as an issue by defining them out of existence,” FMEP’s Lara Friedman tells Foreign Policy.

On Tuesday, Sanders released a video montage on Twitter, embossed with his campaign logo, that cross-cut between the inauguration ceremony of the Jerusalem embassy this week and the violence that unfolded in the Gaza Strip. It also included segments from a panel discussion the Brooklyn native participated in with Lara Friedman, who heads the left-wing Foundation for Middle East Peace, Joe Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund, and Rob Malley, a former Obama administration official.