“Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, said it would be ‘interesting’ to see how Republican leaders would deal with staunchly pro-Israel measures like the ‘nonprofit killer’ going forward. ‘They on the one hand likely see this as a fun opportunity to embarrass Democrats – whose opposition will be framed as anti-Israel or enabling terror and antisemitism – and on the other hand they have to worry about principled opposition from within their own ranks,’ Friedman told Al Jazeera in a statement.”

“That framing isn’t just offensive but also historically pervasive. For decades, mainstream U.S. politicians have treated Palestinian rights and aspirations as a third rail, rarely acknowledged without caveats or apologies. Trump’s remark strips away the pretense. In his worldview, to be “a Palestinian” is not to be a person with history, homeland, and legitimate grievances—but to be the other side of an imagined binary in which Israel, and unquestioning support for it, is always the moral high ground. ‘This isn’t just a rhetorical misstep,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘It perpetuates a toxic narrative that equates Palestinian identity with enmity and delegitimizes the very notion of justice or self-determination for Palestinians.’”

“‘Canary Mission was one of the first groups to use doxxing to go after the Palestine movement. Other groups are seeing how destroying people’s lives through this doxing works, and they’re emulating it,’ said Falaneh. Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, said ‘it’s not a surprise that, as it became normalized to treat criticism of Israel as antisemitic or support of terrorism, there is now an escalation of those methods.'”

“Mehdi talks to a leading expert on antisemitism [FMEP’s Lara Friedman] about the demonization of liberal Jews, the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and the crackdown on free speech when it comes to Israel.”

“Mondoweiss U.S. correspondent Michael Arria spoke with Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) President Lara Friedman. Friedman’s weekly Legislative Round-Up is required reading for anyone who wants to stay informed on the latest bills in Congress and the discussion in Washington, DC. In the conversation Friedman discusses Trump’s pro-Israel Executive Orders and what anti-Palestinian bills people should watch during this congressional session.”

“Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, said it was a deal neither country can afford to make. For Egypt, argued Friedman, moving Palestinians into effectively ‘concentration camps’ along the Sinai, would open them up to military conflict from Israel. ‘There is inevitably going to be residual recidivist military action by Palestinians against Israel, which is going to lead to war between Israel and Egypt,’ she said. There’s also the broad domestic support for the Palestinian cause in Jordan — already home to the world’s largest population of Palestinian refugees — as well as Egypt. ‘For Jordan, the idea of de-populating Gaza and potentially asking Jordan to take more Palestinians is an existential threat for the Jordanian regime,’ said Friedman. ‘From an Egyptian perspective, politically, national security-wise, I don’t know how anyone imagines that Egypt can give in on this and not see itself massively destabilized.’”

“For years, defenders of Israel have accused its critics of being antisemites, a notion that the DOE has also entertained. Since at least 2018, the department has considered adopting a definition of antisemitism that includes criticism of Zionism or Jewish ethnonationalism. Although the DOE has never formally adopted it, such a definition has been used to challenge student and staff organizing in support of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, which advocates economic opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Individual schools have also incorporated the definition into their internal policies, including Harvard University, which did so in January to settle a Title VI complaint filed by the Brandeis Center. Such complaints of alleged antisemitism are filed with the DOE against schools or school districts, which often opt for settlements rather than litigating cases, thereby incurring more significant costs—including further accusations of antisemitism.

“’The core of that is the argument that any meaningful protest or criticism of Israel or Zionism is antisemitism,’ Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, which tracks such Title VI complaints, told Prism. ‘The overwhelming majority of these cases that they’re making are about things that a teacher said about Israel, or allowed to be said in class about Palestine, or was written on a wall—that sort of thing.’

“As an example, Friedman cited the phrase ‘from the river to the sea,’ a popular rallying cry for Palestinian liberation, which Title VI complainants have claimed is antisemitic.”

“Casting a broad net, the legal code penalizes concerted activity to deprive individuals of their rights. It remains to be seen how the administration may wield this statute against Palestine solidarity protesters, a tactic encouraged by a Heritage Foundation legal scholar last year. ‘This incredibly broad, easily abused statute,’ tweeted Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, ‘is what they intend to weaponize against anyone who dares voice public support for Palestinian lives/rights.’”

“Forty-four states have taken up the IHRA definition of antisemitism, either passing it into law or adopting it by proclamation, resolution or executive order, according to the Foundation for Middle East Peace.”

“‘The goal here has long been to refocus the fight against antisemitism — and there is real antisemitism out there, which needs to be fought — to redefine it and make the central focus of this battle the shutting down of criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism,’ said Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Friedman has spent years documenting legislative and lobbying efforts in the U.S. to restrict speech on Israel and pass the IHRA definition into federal law. Many states have already passed resolutions or adopted laws to embrace this framing, according to the Foundation’s data. ‘This has been fought since long before October 7, and it hasn’t passed in Congress because it is so obviously controversial,’ Friedman said. ‘You have major organizations that are not Israel-focused that have come out and said this would massively violate free speech.’ The antisemitism bill has been stalled in the Senate for months, so its definition of antisemitism is not yet the legal standard. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently proposed adding the legislation to the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). ‘Schumer wants to put it on the NDAA, basically saying, ‘I want this to pass, but I don’t want to force Democrats to vote on it because some will vote against it, and then they’ll call Democrats bad on antisemitism,” Friedman told RS. ‘And [Republican Speaker of the House Mike] Johnson is saying, ‘No, we have to have an up-or-down vote and force the Democrats all to vote on it.’”