“Netanyahu had the chance Tuesday to offer a better plan, with the whole world watching,” writes Matthew Duss. “He failed miserably, and in so doing demonstrated conclusively that there isn’t one. To the extent that this buttresses the Obama administration’s case for a deal—and it certainly should—the American people should be grateful to him.”

“Most of the world agrees that Iran must be prevented from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” writes Mitchell Plitnick. “President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu differ over how to accomplish that goal.”

“Netanyahu’s visit to Washington was neither the triumph he expected nor the disaster forecast by opponents of the visit,” writes Dan Kurtzer. “Indeed, the visit shed no new light on the supposedly central issue of the day: the state of play in the Iran negotiations.”

“Mr. Netanyahu’s speech offered nothing of substance that was new, making it clear that this performance was all about proving his toughness on security issues ahead of the parliamentary election he faces on March 17,” writes the New York Times editorial board. “He offered no new insight on Iran and no new reasons to reject the agreement being negotiated with Iran by the United States and five other major powers to constrain Iran’s nuclear program.”

“Some of the Israeli prime minister’s core arguments for scrapping negotiations with Iran are questionable,” write Tony Karon and Tom Kutsch.

“Netanyahu didn’t offer any new thinking on Iran, but he might have succeeded in regaining control over elections that were slipping away from him,” writes Noam Sheizaf.

Two weeks ahead of Israel’s general elections, the leader of the Joint (Arab) List, Ayman Odeh, was upbeat. Last Thursday, the little-known 40-year-old lawyer from Haifa won accolades from pundits across the political spectrum for his dignified composure in the face of a scathing attack by former foreign minister and Israel Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman during a prime-time political debate.

Palestinian leaders began a two-day meeting on Wednesday at which they could decide to suspend security coordination with Israel, a move that would have a profound impact on stability in the occupied West Bank.

Former Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority Salam Fayyad argues that the path to peace can only begin when Gaza is reintroduced into the Palestinian fold.

“In his Congress address on Iran, Netanyahu failed to mention the one thing that endangers Israel’s ability to survive as a Jewish and democratic state,” write the editors of Ha’aretz.

What are the qualifications for being a senior official in Israel’s Housing and Construction Ministry? An examination of 10 appointments to jobs as division managers over the two years since MK Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) took over the portfolio show that you have to be male (all 10 met this criterion), part of the religious-Zionist camp (nine out of 10) and have worked with Ariel or Shlomo Ben-Eliyahu, the director general, in the past (a majority).

“Those familiar with the system know that as long as settlement construction continues, the abuse and intimidation of the Palestinian civilian population will be maintained,” writes Gerard Horton.

“It’s an unwritten arrangement Diaspora Jewish leaders and Israel have kept for decades — though few Jews know about it: The government of Israel uses one of world Jewry’s main Zionist funding instruments to hide money that it channels secretly to exclusively Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank,” writes Nathan Guttman.