There seem to be two arguments contra Josephum - one, that he was a liar; two, that all the parts liberal Jewish persons do not like are "interpolated" (same as the Jesus Project does with all the miracles).
It's only fair to repent wrt St. Augustine - he did it a lot too.
Eh, my friend in those conversations, if I recall correctly, did not have an anti-Christian bias. She would never be anything other than Jewish (and a big lib!), but I don’t remember her saying that to me with any socio/political angle.
Josephus isn’t flattering to the Jews. At least partly because he needed to justify, if only to himself, his desertion to the Roman side.