Pegasus is not simply a phone hacking technology; it is a weapon, one that elicits fear and threatens the lives and livelihoods of anyone whose mobile devices have been infected with it. According to NSO, its Pegasus spyware is named after the mythical winged horse, but NSO calls it a “Trojan horse,” and brags that it can fly anywhere and access anyone’s private information.
The attrition of the United States’ global hegemony is well underway, and with numerous and serious challenges at home—not least of which is a deeply divided populace roiling with White supremacist ideologies and domestic terrorists in the midst of a brutal pandemic—Biden cannot afford to take his eye off the domestic policy front, even as he and his administration struggle to cobble together a coherent foreign policy agenda.
It is still far too early for celebrations or announcements that “Palestine will soon be free” as a result of changed U.S. policy. So much hinges on circumstances that are still in flux in the interconnected realms of U.S. policymaking, electoral politics, and media coverage.
