“…Under this reasoning, the commission will have broad powers to investigate any criticism of Israel that could be deemed unfair or overly exacting — including calls for a cease-fire or citing Israel’s disregard for Palestinian civilians in its targeting. As the Foundation for Middle East Peace’s Lara Friedman, who monitors legislative activity on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, put it, ‘The GOP wants to formally open an era of modern McCarthyism, with criticism of Israel [and] fake concern about antisemitism as hooks to target progressive Americans.’ There’s no need to speculate about intentions. Leading Republicans have already made clear that something as unobjectionable as posting a Palestinian flag is beyond the pale.”

[detailed report on a briefing 11/16/23 by FMEP’s Lara Friedman for Interfaith Action] “‘…At this point, northern Gaza is a wasteland,’ Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), told her audience on 16 November. ‘Israel spent the last 5 weeks literally turning northern Gaza into rubble.’ She described the ongoing devastation as ‘the second Nakba’ and ‘humanitarian catastrophe.’ She recalled that at the start of the war, a senior official in the Israeli army said that at the end of this onslaught, ‘Gaza will have no buildings. Only tents.’ Friedman believes him and predicts that Gaza will not be habitable ‘for a very long time.’ ‘People are dying of cholera, starvation, and thirst in their own homes,’ she said. ‘At that point, no one has the luxury of fighting for national self-determination – which is exactly where people who want to erase Palestinian nationalism want things to be.’…”

“‘The initial response of the US was unsurprising, given the horrific nature and scale of the Hamas attack,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘What came next, though, was almost like wilful ignorance.'” and “As Israel’s forced displacement and repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure – including hospitals – have unfolded in real time on social media, a bigger question is being asked. Does Israel actually want any Palestinians left in the strip at all? ‘At this point, that’s very clearly coming across from senior public Israeli figures who’ve been using genocidal and ethnic cleansing language from day one,’ Friedman said.” and “Friedman argues that Netanyahu, re-elected for a record fifth time in November 2022, has effectively been ‘trained’ by successive US administrations to run through red lines. ‘He believes, so far correctly, that he enjoys total impunity,’ she said.” and “With much of the north in ruins and Israel almost certain to prolong a blockade that has seen imports of construction materials heavily restricted, Friedman wonders whether displacement in the south will become the new status quo. ‘We’ll have a strip in the strip, which will just be a giant Palestinian refugee camp under security control of Israel, with the international community providing food and water. But there will be no chance of anyone developing any kind of life,’ she said.”

“…as Lara Friedman, president of the U.S.-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, which advocates for rapprochement between Israelis and Palestinians, recently pointed out, Hamas won a parliamentary majority in what turned out to be Gaza’s last election − in 2006 − not on an incendiary platform to ‘kill the Jews,’ but as the ‘party of change & reform.’ After years of rule by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ widely unpopular and potentially corrupt Fatah party, ‘a vote for Hamas was a vote against Fatah,’ she said.”

“Netanyahu says the Israeli military incursion will press Hamas to release the hostages. But for now, Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza has seemingly not encouraged Hamas to release hostages. ‘My analysis is that this Israeli government has in the most cynical way simultaneously written off the lives of the hostages, while using them as political capital in convincing the world that no one can tell them what they can or can’t do in Gaza,’ Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, told me. ‘The hostages will be released despite the government of Israel, not because of it.’”

“…Lara Friedman, a former U.S. foreign service officer in the Middle East and now president of the Foundation of Middle East Peace, says that absent support from the Biden administration or leading advocacy groups, those supporting a cease-fire will be called anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and pro-Hamas. ‘That’s a hard place to put yourself,’ she says.”

…”Lara Friedman, president of the Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, said the Biden administration has made it clear that there are no red lines for Israel. ‘That includes not putting any red lines on where Palestinians end up,’ she said. ‘You’re not saying they can’t do it publicly and you’re already pulling together funding to support it if it happens. How can you not see that as a green light?’… Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace also sees a troubling trend among analysts who say that Israel hasn’t defined its end game and that there is no military solution in Gaza, which she said ‘ignores the possibility of ending Palestinians in Gaza’. ‘Then whatever is left, whatever percentage of Palestinians from Gaza survive, are somebody else’s problem because they aren’t in Gaza anymore. That is a military solution, Friedman said.”

“To at least not consider that that is the objective here feels to me like analytical malfeasance.”

“The election yielded a shock victory for Hamas, which won the most seats with some 44 percent of the vote. Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, which advocates for rapprochement and peace between Israelis and Palestinians, recently observed that in no single district in Gaza did Hamas win a majority of votes. At present, children make up roughly half of Gaza’s population, meaning only a fraction of the territory’s current population ever cast a ballot for Hamas.”

“…Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, isn’t so sure this picture amounts to a backsliding in support for the Palestinian cause. ‘In the heat of this crisis, where the dominant media narrative is deeply empathetic to and largely reflective of Israeli grief and anger,’ she said, ‘the fact that you still have a large percentage of American voters, Democrats and Republicans, that are showing they believe we need to be sympathetic to Palestinians is actually pretty extraordinary.’…”

“Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, underscored that Biden’s vice presidency taught him to apply this logic to Israel, convincing him that fighting with Netanyahu over settlement building would lead him to ‘hemorrhage domestic political capital.’ Friedman cited right-wing attacks painting both Biden and Obama as hostile to Israel during their presidential campaigns, and noted the recent escalation of such tactics, with AIPAC’s unprecedented spending to defeat progressive candidates during the 2022 Democratic primaries. ‘Biden’s overarching priority is, understandably, ensuring that Democrats hold seats in Congress and the White House,’ she said. ‘They know this is an issue that can be weaponized against them in elections.’”