In 2016, facing multiple allegations of bribery, fraud, and corruption, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interrogated by Israeli police. This investigation and testimony went on for over two years, revealing how foreign policy was shaped and the government was corroded.
From over 1,000 hours of leaked footage, filmmaker Alexis Bloom has cobbled together The Bibi Files, a compelling indictment of Israel’s government. Shocking testimony and interviews with family, friends, witnesses, and others at the center of the investigation form the definitive, damning diary of Israel’s disgraced, pugilistic prime minister.
Much credit must go to Emmy- and Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney, who gained access and shared the tapes with Director Bloom and served as producer.
The film is a picture of how corrupt government thrusts an entire nation into turmoil. More than just receiving gifts and favors, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and his wife Sara demanded them as part of their pay-to-play governance. In contrast to the crass favoritism and demand of royal treatment, the couple often hid their expensive, lavish, and illegal booty in common bags and coolers.
Meanwhile, they treated their employees and co-workers with condescension and cruelty, an attitude that misjudged their own superiority and license. The service staff repeatedly noted how Sara Netanyahu demanded doting treatment and was often involved in governmental decision-making for which she was neither trained nor temperamentally suited.
Their shakedown extended beyond attempts to influence the American government to provide “defensive” weapons systems. Netanyahu granted favors to private individuals and businesses, including casino moguls Sheldon and Miriam Adelson and filmmaker Amon Milchan (Twelve Years a Slave, JFK). Netanyahu even intervened with Israel’s Minister of Finance to secure an illegal tax exemption and fix Milchan’s U.S. visa for him.
No step was too low for the head of Israel’s government to stoop as he secured funds in exchange for favorable coverage from a news service website.
One cannot help but be struck by Netanyahu’s pompous, bullying, abrasive nature in the face of his criminal behavior. Beyond the caustic, unpleasant personality, the viewer is confronted by Bibi’s venality and coarse self-promotive profit-at-all-costs mode, which compromised his government and endangered the lives of not only Israelis but of all those who lived in the entire Middle East.
The evidence of corruption mounted from 2016 through 2019, when Netanyahu was indicted. But he arrogantly refused to resign. He courted hard-right religious militants, and he undermined and sought to limit Israel’s Supreme Court when it threatened to curtail his power.
His actions undermined Israel’s security and set it up for war. As one of the interviewees comments, the investigations made him dependent on the right wing as the war on Gaza became an instrument of staying in power. Society was destabilized as he confronted massive demonstrations demanding his ouster. Meanwhile, he ignored the growth of Hamas, using its actions to justify his refusal to relinquish power. Despite signs and warnings about their activity, he undermined the Palestinian Authority as a countervailing power.
Bloom captures Netanyahu in pictures where the courts couldn’t punish his lawlessness. He declares himself untouchable, flaunting the law. The Bibi Files shows how this “architect of chaos” used his power over a flawed system to wreak havoc over the entire Middle East.
The Bibi Files is available on Jolt.film and YouTube.
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