The Bibi Files

The Bibi Files, billed as a documentary about politics and crime, takes an “unflinching” look at the investigation of Benjamin Netanyahu and his inner circle for extensive corruption, including bribery and fraud, that launched in 2016. The 2024 film features leaked, never-seen-before police interrogation footage of “Bibi,” his wife Sara, their older son Yair, and employees and political allies, as well as interviews with other key figures, all of which not only paints a picture of a greedy clan with the mindset, “I deserve it, and I can get away with it,” but of a politician (trained as an architect) who excels at being “the architect of chaos.”

Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister since Israel’s founding, having served in that position from 1996–1999, 2009–2021, and from 2022 to present, as well as serving as Minister of Finance from 2003–2005. Although not elaborated on in The Bibi Files, allegations of influence-peddling and other political and marital scandals have shrouded Netanyahu’s entire career. Bibi Files director Alexis Bloom has stated, “Honestly, these stories about Netanyahu are fairly well known in Israel. So many Israelis…have said to me, ‘You need to get this out to the wider world.’”

The thousands of hours of interrogation footage recorded by Israeli police from 2016 to 2018—leaked to producer and filmmaker/muckraker Alex Gibney in 2023—provide, in Gibney’s words, “powerful evidence of [Netanyahu’s] venal and corrupt character.” The film’s communication of Netanyahu’s body language, gaslighting, bullying, and disingenuous defense of “I don’t remember” may be one of the reasons why reviewers have described the documentary as “extraordinary and essential.” As a review in Variety put it, “Netanyahu is as great an actor as Trump or maybe Al Pacino…mesmerizing in his shamelessness.”

The insights into Bibi’s climb up the political ladder and the glimpses of his “messianic streak” are fascinating, but the film packs its biggest punch in linking the events of October 7, 2023, to Netanyahu’s desire to sideline the investigation and remain in power. Even Wikipedia writes, “Insiders believe Netanyahu to be responsible for the attacks, having empowered Hamas in Gaza for years to weaken the Palestinian Authority.” As The Bibi Files shows, the genocide in Gaza neatly coincides with Netanyahu’s political appointment of two smilingly murderous “ultra-nationalists” to his cabinet, leading, in one interviewee’s words, to “every imaginable atrocity.” The film’s pairing of Gaza massacre footage alongside footage of the 58 standing ovations the U.S. Congress gave to Netanyahu in 2024 is likely to make American viewers cringe with embarrassment and shame.

Is the tide turning? On September 26, an estimated 90% of UN delegates walked out of Netanyahu’s speech at the 80th United Nations General Assembly to protest the Gaza genocide, leaving a pitiful contingent representing the United States and United Kingdom alone to applaud Netanyahu’s statement that Israel “must finish the job.”

Although born in Israel, Netanyahu strategically cemented his ties to the United States early on, attending Cheltanham High School in a suburb of Philadelphia (1963–1967) and returning to MIT for college and graduate school in the 1970s. Catherine, having grown up in Philadelphia and being familiar with Cheltanham High, has always said, “I could have told you it was a dangerous thing to let a kid from Cheltanham High loose with a nuclear arsenal.”

The Bibi Files can be rented and streamed at Jolt.Film