At a recent post-screening Q&A, MSNBC's Lawrence O’Donnell stopped short in his questions for The Bibi Files producer Alex Gibney and director Alexis Bloom, to take a call from his daughter, excusing himself by explaining that she was in the evacuation area of Los Angeles, trying to discern which art to rescue from the fires raging there. Huh? What fire? The wildfires were just starting as big news. Meantime, the documentary, featuring a key interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, had reached its own heat with the realization that the Israeli prime minister had actually allowed funding Hamas through Qatar. To stay in power, to avert jail for corruption, he saw his chance to fuel chaos. Wanting to keep his enemies closer, as he boasted to his interrogators in the secret footage shown in the film, he would control the violence, allowing Hamas to set the fires as he contained the height of the flames.
October 7 was a direct result. The Bibi Files reveals much through interviews conducted by police in Netanyahu’s office with a map of the Middle East in the background. Investigated for extravagant gifts of champagne, cigars, and jewelry, the prime minister maintains he is the victim of a witch hunt. He had learned from visiting world leaders during his many terms in office, life in Israel, even at the top, is an austere business.
His wife Sara Netanyahu, a character out of central casting, loves to drink. Interviews with government insiders speak to her proclivities, and his fear of her, but nothing says more than her own outrageous behind-the-scenes performance involving shouting, table banging, accusations of the media starving their son who was too stressed to eat. No thought to Gazans actually starving. In meetings with the hostage families, Sara is outraged at the distressed families’ criticism of the right-wing Israeli regime. Attuned to the P.R. moment, she demands their gratitude. Even as I write, two more bodies have been found in tunnels. Plucked off the headlines, this is a story that has no end, only ominous foreshadowing of the perils of bad leadership.
A stunning expose that no US distributor would take on, even after world rights were snapped up in most countries, this is a must-see film. Gibney and Bloom went to the new Jolt streaming service. You can watch “The Bibi Files” there for $12.99, and it’s worth every penny.
As for O’Donnell, he said on his MSNBC show that a friend had seen his house standing. But with the wind and the capricious nature of embers, it’s still touch and go. We’ll see how high these flames go.
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