The documentary film The Bibi Files, begins with and is named for and for a long time focuses on leaked videos from the prosecution of Netanyahu for corruption. Through much of the film my thoughts were of Al Capone -- of getting a killer on tax fraud. Do I really want to watch footage of an obnoxious sociopath when that's the majority of U.S. news every day, and do I really want this other killer to go down for having demanded cigars and champagne and jewelry from his billionaire sugar daddies, without even mentioning the people he kills? But the tail end of the movie goes to the genocide and connects it to the corruption trial. That's when watching this film pays off.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9wSXIvaNKE[/embed]
The thesis of this film is that Bibi's actions for five years have been largely focused on staying out of prison. He had developed a belief in his own immunity, in his ability to commit any crime. But then the prosecutors began closing in. Not the ICC prosecutors for genocide, the Israeli prosecutors for his petty tyrannical corruption. And in Israel, the throne has not traditionally provided U.S.-like immunity. Others have gone down. Others have been locked up. In addition, when Netanyahu was finally indicted, the more centrist political parties dumped him. He became dependent on the rightwing nutballs, and he empowered murderous lunatics he had previously wished not to be seen with. Think of a shift from Mike Pence to JD Vance times 1,000.
Bibi had something in common with the most fascistic living Israelis, beyond the sociopathic evil. He wanted to rig the courts of Israel to not convict him of demanding disgusting presents for his wife and master from billionaires, and they wanted to rig the courts to not convict them of ethnic cleansing or genocidal attacks. So, Netanyahu proposed "judicial reform." And all hell broke loose. Imagine, if the Israeli public cared about Palestinian lives, what the protests in Israeli cities might look like right now. That was apparently how much they did care about Israeli courts. The biggest protests in the history of Israel rocked the nation.
Now, the film claims that somehow Israel was made "weak" by the protests and that this somehow led to the Hamas attack of "October 7." How that works is never explained, and the line in the film may have been aimed more at a steady flow of narrative than at making sense. But another connection between the madness of king Bibi and the attacks of October 7 is laid out in the film and makes perfect sense. Netanyahu had not only hypocritically and secretly funded Hamas in an effort to avoid leaders willing to negotiate peace, but he had also constantly pushed hostile, counterproductive, and murderous Israeli policies toward Palestine. Violent responses were predictable.
So was Netanyahu's next move: use October 7 as the excuse for a rapidly escalated genocide. Preach genocide to the U.S. Congress in the U.S. Capitol to endless standing ovations. Show that video to the Israelis. Endlessly postpone the corruption trial with the excuse of endless warmaking.
Of course the U.S. Congress cheers for genocide largely because of corruption that never goes on trial. And a big chunk of the Israeli public that believes the idiot who got you into war must be kept in power because of the war is exactly as stupid -- no more and no less -- than most other publics.
Still, there may be some value in watching the full Bibi Files including all the interrogation videos that are included in the film, and not just because Bibi doesn't want you to and tried to prevent it. Not so much to watch Bibi, who mostly says "I don't remember" and "I have no idea" and "You're crazy." More to watch people like Arnon Milchan and his staff, and Sheldon Adelson, and Netanyahu's own staff and wife and son.
It's nice to sit in the United States with a bowl of popcorn and laugh at the clownish barbarity of another government, and forget about Trump for a while. But a lot of the bribes to Bibi have come from the good old USA, and apparently things were especially hard on the Israeli royal couple's staff following any visit to the White House in Washington, D.C., because Madame wanted the same level of luxury to be reproduced for her. When Israeli-Hollywood billionaire Arnon Milchan wanted his U.S. visa fixed following his bragging about having helped Israel get nukes, it was John Kerry who got the phone call from Bibi . . . and did his bidding.
And if you think the Trumpolini court isn't watching this stuff for tips on how Netanyahu controlled Israeli media outlets, you haven't been paying attention.
In the end, I have to say, they got Nixon on trivial nonsense, but they got him. If Netanyahu goes down for a box of Cuban cigars, and his replacement understands that part of the problem was genocide, I bet even the Cubans will celebrate.
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