Carlson turns a banned documentary into a political weapon
Tucker Carlson has bought the rights to The Bibi Files, the documentary by Alexis Bloom and producer Alex Gibney that has been barred from screening in Israel. Carlson, the former Fox News host and one of the more prominent voices in the Maga media universe, used the purchase to frame the film as proof that the United States is being pushed into yet another foreign war.
On March 27, 2026, Carlson posted on X: “As the US is dragged into another foreign war, it’s worth knowing about the man who forced us into it. Watch the film so revealing that it’s banned in Israel. The Bibi Files streaming now on TCN.” TCN is the Tucker Carlson Network, his own media channel, which has become a convenient home for his criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu, his hostility to military intervention, and his growing suspicion that Israel is steering Washington toward conflict with Tehran.
In Carlson’s telling, the documentary exposes “years of stories that the Netanyahu government wants to keep hidden,” including what he describes as exaggerated corruption allegations, shady backroom deals, and the prime minister’s anti-American geopolitical maneuvers. He also argues that, as the US moves deeper into confrontation with Iran, understanding who is really pulling the strings matters more than ever. Subtlety, as usual, was not invited.
What the film shows
The Bibi Files is built around more than 1,000 hours of leaked footage recorded between 2016 and 2018. Among the material are police interrogations of Netanyahu, his wife Sara, and their son Yair. The documentary also draws heavily on testimony from Raviv Drucker, the investigative journalist and producer involved in the project, and from Uzi Beller, a childhood friend of Netanyahu who later became an outspoken critic.
The film centers on the corruption, fraud, and breach-of-trust cases known as Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000. Its broader argument is that Netanyahu’s legal troubles and his political and military decisions are deeply connected, and that keeping the country in a state of permanent crisis helps keep attention away from his trials.
The film is currently banned in Israel because of legal restrictions that block the publication of police interrogation footage without court approval. In other words, the footage exists, the controversy exists, and the law also exists, which can be annoyingly inconvenient for everyone involved.
A network of favors, gifts, and media pressure
The documentary traces a long web of relationships linking Netanyahu to some of the world’s most powerful billionaires, including Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, who prosecutors say gave the Netanyahu family gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. It pays particular attention to the Israeli-American couple Miriam and Sheldon Adelson.
The film suggests that Netanyahu relied on a pattern of favors, gifts, and media leverage to strengthen his political position. One of the key threads involves alleged understandings with Arnon Mozes, the publisher of Yedioth Ahronoth, in which Netanyahu supposedly sought favorable coverage while working to discredit opponents.
The Adelsons also loom large in the documentary. Sheldon Adelson, the casino and hotel magnate who died in 2021, appears in interrogation footage alongside Miriam, who remains an influential figure in pro-Israel politics and in Donald Trump’s orbit. Born in Tel Aviv, raised in Haifa, and later naturalized as an American citizen, she is one of the biggest donors to pro-Israel causes and Jewish charities, and she owns Israel Hayom, the second-most widely read newspaper in Israel after Haaretz.
The film presents that media role as part of the same power structure. It suggests the Netanyahu family expected supportive treatment from the paper, while Sara Netanyahu, in particular, comes across in the footage as someone who aggressively policed coverage and reacted badly to anything she considered unflattering.
Some of the sharpest comments come from Sheldon Adelson, who is shown speaking dismissively about Sara and appears to distance himself from the couple. At one point, he is quoted as saying, “The country would be better off if she didn’t interfere. She is uncompromising… I don’t think I’ll be friends with him anymore.”
The documentary also highlights how the Netanyahu family allegedly demanded luxury gifts, including cigars said to cost $100 each and Tiffany jewelry. Sara Netanyahu is depicted making angry phone calls over newspaper photos she disliked, while Miriam Adelson is shown facing the bizarre accusation that if Iran attacked, the fault would lie with the Adelsons because they were not doing enough to defend her husband’s government. “If this footage came out, I would be dead,” Miriam says in one scene, apparently aware that the material is not exactly flattering.
Hamas, Qatar, and the politics of keeping the conflict alive
One of the film’s most contentious claims concerns Netanyahu’s strategy toward Hamas. According to the documentary, he indirectly encouraged the flow of Qatari money to the Islamist group that governs Gaza. The New York Times has reported that billions of dollars were transferred over roughly a decade. Officially, the funds were meant for humanitarian purposes, but critics argue they helped Hamas consolidate itself militarily while Israel bought temporary quiet.
The film’s argument is that Netanyahu saw a divided Palestinian arena as politically useful. By letting Hamas grow stronger, the logic goes, he weakened Fatah, which the documentary portrays as a more credible and internationally acceptable political interlocutor. That, in turn, made a two-state solution harder to imagine and easier to postpone.
Raviv Drucker documents how Netanyahu used a state of ongoing conflict to delay his own legal troubles, making Hamas part of a security narrative that could justify almost anything. Several commentators in the film describe October 7 as the indirect result of that policy, calling it the biggest failure in Israeli security and the product of a belief that Hamas could be managed rather than confronted.
The pardon request and the political fallout
The documentary arrives as Netanyahu continues to face major legal and political pressure. In November 2025, he formally submitted a pardon request to President Isaac Herzog, a move that remains fiercely debated. Trump, meanwhile, had previously urged Herzog to grant it.
To stop the film from spreading in Israel, Netanyahu invoked legal secrecy tied to the court process. But the documentary’s value is not only in what it says about the trial. It also paints a broader picture of a dense and uneasy system linking finance, media, and state power.
That, ultimately, is the movie’s main claim: that the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history built and sustained his power through a network of loyalties, pressure, favors, and luxury gifts, while the country around him paid the price.
