Alex Gibney

But I do think...

That he had deluded himself in part because he thought of the world as a series of deals.

He had deluded himself into the idea that he had manipulated Hamas and all the money that was flowing to Hamas, you know, wasn't going to go to weapons and preparing an attack.

I mean, he kept saying, what was the phrase?

It's in the film that he could control the height of the flames by the introduction of money.

He also quotes his godfather when he's talking to the police.

He says, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, as if he was the Don and sort of able to manipulate events, but he clearly was not able to.

Well, it may be a little bit too cynical.

I mean, maybe Netanyahu's wanted to attack Iran for years.

In fact, they did another film about that subject called Zero Days.

But I do think that once the momentum of war began,

And I would say also that to some extent, the momentum of war began to have a certain popular impact among the populace in Israel, too, that now there was an opportunity to go after more enemies.

So and it had the byproduct, of course, as long as there's war, as long as there's permanent war, Netanyahu will never be held to account.

So once again, I think it may be a bit too cynical to say he attacked Iran so he wouldn't go to jail.

But I think it had been a longstanding desire.

for Netanyahu to want to really go after Iran.

And now both once he'd started the war in Gaza, but also I think with the Trump administration coming to power in 2024, suddenly he had an opportunity.

I agree.

I think it's fair to say that there is a robust...

group of people who are vehemently anti-Netanyahu and believe he's destroying Israel and destroying democracy in Israel, and indeed making the country a pariah worldwide.