Tunnel Vision.

 In a video prepared mainly for foreign news media outlets, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari gave a tour of the claustrophobic underground passageway in Rafah's Tel Sultan neighbourhood. The tunnel where the murdered Israeli hostages were kept. The place was littered with bottles of urine, women's clothes, and large blood stains on the ground, where the hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Almog Sarusi, Carmel Gat and Alex Lobanov were held and executed at the end of last month. The army first presented the video to the families and they agreed to show it to the public as well. In the video, one sees IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari going down into the narrow, low tunnel, unable to stand upright. describing the conditions under which the hostages were held there.  

Another IDF spokesman said it did not have any specific or real-time intelligence on the six hostages being held there in the weeks before they were murdered, but had indications that the hostages could be in the general area they were searching, and therefore had operated carefully above ground and even more so below the surface in the tunnels. Apparently, after spotting Israeli forces approaching the area, the Hamas terrorists guarding the six hostages decided to execute them.

Hagari also aired a Hebrew version of the same video aimed at reaching Israeli viewers. “They were held here in this tunnel in horrific conditions, where there is no air to breathe, where you cannot stand upright. They survived, but they were murdered by Hamas terrorists. There are still hostages, 101, some of them are alive in the same conditions in tunnels like this in Gaza.” He said.

I’ve noticed that on previous occasions when interviewed, Hagari was meticulously careful not to add personal comments. Nevertheless, he intimated that time was running out for the rest of the hostages still alive. Commentators, Israeli affairs analysts and run-of-the-mill observers like myself noticed that Daniel Hagari was making a clear, critical point. “Close the deal now!” Prime Minister Netanyahu’s obstinate insistence on commanding the Philadelphi Corridor is tantamount to prolonging the war in Gaza and adversely affecting IDF operations in the West Bank and the northern front against Hezbollah in Lebanon. One analyst called it “Tunnel Vision.”

Netanyahu has had a bad week!

“The Bibi Files”, a new documentary by filmmakers Alexis Bloom and Alex Gibney, which features never-before-seen footage of Israeli police interrogating Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, his family and his inner circle on corruption allegations. The documentary was screened as a work-in-progress at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival on Monday, hours after a Jerusalem court rejected a petition by Netanyahu to block the screening.

The documentary, which shows leaked interrogation footage of the Israeli prime minister, made its debut at the festival.

Israeli courts rejected Netanyahu’s request before the film – in which he is seen furiously denying allegations of bribery and corruption – was unveiled to a tense and vocal audience, many of whom were carrying signs reading “Bring Them Home” and “Deal Now”, referring to the hostages held in Gaza.

The film, directed by Alexis Bloom and produced by Alex Gibney, builds a rigorous and damning case, posing an argument close observers may already be familiar with: Netanyahu is prolonging the devastating war in Gaza to avoid possible prison time stemming from corruption charges. A humanitarian crisis flouting international law is all about his self-preservation.

According to the documentary – which Bloom began working on before October 7, when a source provided Gibney with the leaked videos – Netanyahu’s lawyer filed a motion to delay the trial currently scheduled for December. The lawyer cites the ongoing war as the reason.

“I’ve never seen the depth of moral corruption as I’ve seen in this man,” Gibney, the director of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, told the audience following the screening. A member of what appeared to be a largely pro-Israel audience policed Gibney’s language, interrupting the producer to clarify that Netanyahu had not yet been found guilty. The attempts at seizing control of the narrative, both on screen and off, didn’t end there.

The interrogation videos shown in the film were recorded by police between 2016 and 2018 before they formally brought charges of corruption against Netanyahu. The footage includes the prime minister addressing allegations that he and his wife accepted expensive champagne, Cuban cigars and jewellery from the Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. Netanyahu is heard minimizing the champagne and cigars as simply gifts from a friend, while denying knowledge of the jewellery.

Several witnesses who worked for Milchan and Netanyahu are also shown speaking to police. They paint a picture of regular gifts expected by Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, in exchange for favours. One such favour includes a marginal tax break extension that benefited Milchan. Netanyahu argues his unusual interference regarding the tax break was for the good of the state, not Milchan. Meanwhile, the LA Confidential producer corroborated much of the witness testimony, though, in one excerpt, he gently asks police not to use the word “bribery” because it would make him look bad.

Netanyahu is also seen vehemently denying allegations that he signed off on regulations favouring the Israeli media mogul Shaul Elovitch. The prime minister repeatedly and dramatically calls one of his top aides, Nir Hefetz, a liar for saying so. Other witnesses argue Elovitch paid back the alleged generosity by allowing Netanyahu to directly influence coverage of his family on the popular website Walla.

The incriminating evidence in the interrogation videos has already been leaked and reported on by Israeli media. But the videos will never be shown to the public (at least legally) in Israel. According to Gibney, Israeli law grants privacy to subjects who have been photographed in official proceedings, which would make publication of the footage illegal. “It’s a law peculiar to Israel [that] doesn’t affect the rest of the world,” Gibney said.

He explained that they brought The Bibi Files to Toronto, as a work-in-progress, because it urgently needed to be seen while the death toll in Gaza continues to rise. But also because they are seeking distribution partners at the festival’s market, hoping to get the film released as quickly as possible for the world to see.

Though the documentary doesn’t reveal new information, Gibney explains that for an audience familiar with Netanyahu’s carefully stage-managed speeches, watching his agitation under interrogation, where his performance begins to crack, is illuminating. At various points when police officers confront him with incriminating testimony from his peers, Netanyahu raises fists and repeatedly slams his hand against his desk as if the banging will silence the accusations.

“Even in the interrogation videos, you see performances,” says Gibney. “But you see performances that are not as finely tuned; that are performed for an audience of three people; that he doesn’t think is going to get out of the room.”

The Bibi Files contextualizes the interrogation videos with a portrait of Netanyahu, whose career is built on stoking fear and promising security, and whose personal life is largely in service of his wife Sara’s turbulent moods and expensive lifestyle. Sara Netanyahu’s erratic testimonies and outbursts during testimony are also included in the footage.

Insiders like the Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker, former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon, a childhood friend and more, are on hand as talking heads. They connect the dots and reveal the long-running pattern of Netanyahu serving his own interests while clinging to power – from deliberate ploys to sabotage an alliance between the West Bank and Gaza by enabling Hamas, to his alliance with the violent far right and attempted overhaul of the supreme court to save himself from prosecution.

Mittal Balmes Cohen of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem stated, "We won't see a substantial change in public opinion in Israel, but in the international arena it has great significance."

I’ll conclude with a personal titbit. On the 11th of September our inner family circle quietly celebrated my 90th birthday. Later this month we plan to have a much larger celebration.

 

Take care.

Beni,   12th of September, 2024.