For the past eight years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu has been under continuous investigation on charges of serious corruption. His brazen but fruitless attempts to avoid legal action have dramatically shaken Israel’s stability, both domestically and internationally.
Many Israelis believe that Netanyahu’s attempts to delay his own trial are the key to understanding all recent events, from his endorsement of the illegal expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, his controversial approach to negotiating hostage releases (in effect, a refusal to negotiate), and his military decisions that have created a dangerous situation that the UN Secretary General has described as “a moral stain on us all.”
Political maneuvering
The film The Bibi Files, which has debuted at a Canadian film festival, for the first time lifts the veil on leaked videos of Netanyahu’s interrogations by police, and appears to be a strategic “chess move” by the West, as part of a wider campaign to manage public opinion should Netanyahu be forced to abdicate. Israeli media had already published compromising evidence in the form of these interrogation videos, and thus the film does not reveal any new information. Western countries, particularly the United States, have been criticized for constantly “fueling” Israel’s military machine in Gaza by providing the regime with unwavering military support in addition to huge political and financial assistance. In recent months, there have been large-scale protests in the United States, Canada and European countries against the war in Gaza and the West’s support for the offensive.
Moreover, Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, or, to put it more bluntly, the massacre of Palestinian civilians, have exacerbated the regime’s international isolation. The UN International Court of Justice has accused Israel of genocide, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on charges of committing war crimes and atrocities against humanity.
Israel’s dissatisfaction with Israel and the regime’s growing isolation have caused deep concern among its Western allies. They fear that growing anti-Israel sentiment will pose a serious threat to the existence of the Netanyahu regime. There is now no doubt that all Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, as well as the regime’s Western allies, have the blood of Palestinian civilians on their hands. But the West seems eager to turn Netanyahu into a sacrificial lamb or scapegoat for the heinous crimes the regime has committed.
The Bibi Files, despite its topicality and relevance, is consistent with this trend. In fact, the documentary demonizes its main subject in order to maintain the power structure in Israel. Israel’s powerful lobby in the US and certain Western leaders are acting like puppeteers pulling strings from behind the curtain. By focusing on Netanyahu, they hope to placate the growing opposition to Israel’s barbarism and whitewash its atrocities in the Palestinian territories, particularly during the Gaza war.
Films like The Bibi Files use cinematic storytelling to protect the real villains. But when the curtain falls and the lights come up, the audience realizes the fact that the masterminds have sacrificed the main subject of the film to protect themselves. The Bibi Files ends with Benjamin Netanyahu’s late July speech to a joint session of the US Congress, where he was met with thunderous applause. Weaving a web of deceit and playing the innocent, he tried to justify his army’s bloodbath in Gaza. When Netanyahu returned to Israel, he killed more Palestinians, including women and children.
Now Bibi’s American masters have concluded that the “butcher of Gaza” must be sacrificed to ensure that apartheid and the Israeli regime will continue to exist in the future, and can continue to simply exterminate Palestinians under various pretexts.
The main idea of the film
The documentary, directed by Alexis Bloom and produced by Alex Gibney features hitherto unseen footage of police questioning of Netanyahu, his family and his inner circle on corruption charges. The questioning on the bribery charges was recorded between 2016 and 2018 and have never been made public in Israel due to privacy laws. According to Variety magazine, recordings of Netanyahu’s questioning by police between those years were leaked to Bloom in early 2023. When he obtained the recordings, Israel was witnessing mass demonstrations against Netanyahu’s push for controversial judicial reforms. The recordings consist of thousands of hours of interviews. The documentary portrays Netanyahu as a leader facing several criminal charges, including bribery, and how his actions after his indictment have influenced his decision-making, particularly his response to Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, Hamas’ surprise military attack in southern Israel on October 7 last year. Benjamin Netanyahu, is on trial for fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases filed in 2019. These cases are listed as 1000, 2000, and 4000, and include bribery charges. Netanyahu’s first trial was put on hold because of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm and the ensuing Israeli war of genocide in Gaza. Israel’s prime minister has categorically denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the allegations as a complete fabrication and a witch hunt.
From the beginning, the Bibi Files does not shy away from exposing Netanyahu’s manipulative tactics. It demonstrates his chilling skill at inciting fear, his calculated use of divisive rhetoric, and his cynical exploitation of the media to create an atmosphere of constant crisis, all aimed at consolidating his own power.
The movie debunks the myth of Netanyahu as a strong man, revealing the hollowness beneath his image as a determined leader. It exposes his willingness to sacrifice unity on the altar of political expediency, turning a society once advertised as a “vibrant democracy” into a fractured landscape of distrust and suspicion.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an unfinished saga that continues to make headlines every day and has been the subject of many films . ЁFive years after numerous corruption charges were leveled against him, Netanyahu is still in power. Mass protests against Netanyahu have erupted regularly, with demonstrators demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and a deal to swap Israeli hostages for the many Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Netanyahu’s corruption trial continues, as do the US arms shipments to Israel, which are contributing to the killing of Palestinian civilians. The war in Gaza has drawn attention to US ties with Israel, and the Bibi Files gives a clear picture of how the “special relationship” between the two nations works on multiple levels. Some of the most sobering conclusions of the former senior Israeli officials interviewed in the documentary relate to the responsibility of influential and even ordinary US citizens.
Victor Mikhin, corresponding member of RANS, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”
