Benjamin Netanyahu Is Israel’s Worst Prime Minister Ever | Orban Takes His Soros Smear Campaign on the Road | America’s African Balancing Act, and more

Can Biden Save Israel from Itself?  (Leon Hadar, National Interests)
There is no doubt that Biden would have preferred to beat Hamas in a blood-free war without the scenes of destruction and dead babies in Gaza, which hurts the administration’s credibility in the Arab World and among Arab-American voters.
The criticism from Washington, whether from the White House or Democratic senators, is aimed at demonstrating to those critics at home and abroad that the U.S. government is “doing something” to restrain Israel without taking more severe steps, like cutting military aid.
But the idea that Biden is going to come to the assistance of those who seek to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power and schedule an election in Israel is wishful thinking on the part of Israeli politicians and pundits.
The latter have to understand that if they fail to convince the majority of Israelis that an independent Palestinian State would pose no threat to Israel, such a state will not be established. If they want to save Israel, they have to do that themselves. The Americans won’t do the job for them.

Benjamin Netanyahu Is Israel’s Worst Prime Minister Ever  (Anshel Pfeffer, The Atlantic)
Netanyahu’s ambition has consumed both him and Israel. To regain and remain in office, he has sacrificed his own authority and parceled out power to the most extreme politicians. Since his reelection in 2022, Netanyahu is no longer the center of power but a vacuum, a black hole that has engulfed all of Israel’s political energy. His weakness has given the far right and religious fundamentalists extraordinary control over Israel’s affairs, while other segments of the population are left to pursue the never-ending quest to end his reign.
One man’s pursuit of power has diverted Israel from confronting its most urgent priorities: the threat from Iran, the conflict with the Palestinians, the desire to nurture a Westernized society and economy in the most contested corner of the Middle East, the internal contradictions between democracy and religion, the clash between tribal phobias and high-tech hopes. Netanyahu’s obsession with his own destiny as Israel’s protector has caused his country grievous damage.
Most Israelis already realize that Netanyahu is the worst of the 14 prime ministers their country has had in its 76 years of independence. But in the future, Jews might even remember him as the leader who inflicted the most harm on his people since the squabbling Hasmonean kings brought civil war and Roman occupation to Judea nearly 21 centuries ago. As long as he remains in power, he could yet surpass them.

Israel Deploys Expansive Facial Recognition Program in Gaza  (Sheera Frenkel, New York Times)
Hundreds of Palestinians have been picked out by a previously undisclosed Israeli facial recognition program that was started in Gaza late last year. The expansive and experimental effort is being used to conduct mass surveillance there, collecting and cataloging the faces of Palestinians without their knowledge or consent, according to Israeli intelligence officers, military officials and soldiers.
The technology was initially used in Gaza to search for Israelis who were taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7 cross-border raids, the intelligence officials said. After Israel embarked on a ground offensive in Gaza, it increasingly turned to the program to root out anyone with ties to Hamas or other militant groups. At times, the technology wrongly flagged civilians as wanted Hamas militants, one officer said.
The facial recognition program, which is run by Israel’s military intelligence unit, including the cyber-intelligence division Unit 8200, relies on technology from Corsight, a private Israeli company, four intelligence officers said. It also uses Google Photos, they said. Combined, the technologies enable Israel to pick faces out of crowds and grainy drone footage.
Three of the people with knowledge of the program said they were speaking out because of concerns that it was a misuse of time and resources by Israel.