Brooke Gladstone, the host of the radio program On the Media, had an interview with Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker who has been investigating Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for decades. Netanyahu and his wife Sarah have apparently engaged in brazen acts of corruption, demanding and getting bribes from various people to satisfy their taste for luxuries. There have been years of hearings with 333 witnesses since May 2020.
But there have also been hundreds of hours of interrogation footage by the police of Netanyahu and his wife and son and other members of his inner circle. that have been under seal that have now been leaked and form a large part of a new documentary The Bibi Files.
Drucker describes how as the investigation into Netanyahu’s corruption expanded and closed in on him and he started to lose support, he realized that he needed to stay as prime minister in order to avoid having to go to trial and so he did whatever he felt he needed to to stay in power and that included forming alliances with the most extreme right wing elements of Israeli politics, people who are openly espousing ethnic cleansing and using genocidal rhetoric towards Palestinians. Drucker says that if election were to be held now, Netanyahu would lose and could no longer evade justice. He would likely be found guilty of crimes and end up in jail. So having an ongoing war on many fronts serves his personal interests since they appease the extremist wing in his coalition without whose support he would lose power.
When listening to the interview and Drucker’s descriptions of Netanyahu, it reminded me a lot of creepy Donald Trump. In the latter’s case, he too desperately wants to become president again so as to stop as many cases against him as he can and stay out of prison. Both he and Netanyahu are grifters, seeing high political office as a means of enriching themselves and avoiding accountability, with little regard for the damage they do to so many people.
The documentary will be released in the US later this fall.
The interview begins at the 18:10 mark.
It is beyond disgusting that the one corrupt man can be responsible for so much death, suffering and destruction just to save himself from accountability and that leaders around the world, who know why this is happening, are not doing a thing to stop him. And the US is the worst offender with its continued financial, political and arming support.