“Total victory doesn’t actually mean anything here”

A young woman from Be'eri demonstrates that the last guardrails for democracy just might hold in Israel - and America too.

A question that has been asked a lot lately, in light of the perils being faced by American democracy, is whether, in the face of an administration determined to obliterate all norms, the guardrails can possibly hold.

I have written already that I have an ounce of optimism that they can here in America, based on what has happened in Israel, where there are fewer guardrails: in particular, no constitution and a weakened legislature - yet where good people have come through time and time again.

I now believe it even more - in large part because of this young woman.

Her name is Gili Schwartz, from Be’eri, and a gripping interview with her is featured prominently in a new documentary that is making quite a stir (See the clip here.)

If you are a supporter of Israel or of American democracy, do yourself a favor and see Gili in The Bibi Files, a highly-touted film that just opened around the world (except for Israel, where it cannot be seen legally but still is finding its way to laptops and tablets). In the U.S. it can be seen at theaters or streaming online. It details the complicated corruption trial against the prime minister that is at this very moment is reaching its climax, with Netanyahu testifying in real time.

Click here to access the film

For those who are wondering why a seemingly innocuous corruption trial is such a big deal, especially given what has transpired in Israel since the accusations first came to light, the film explains why these corruption cases have brought incalculable damage. This is a lesson well worth heeding here in America.

Half the film deals with the shady cases themselves, featuring leaked police interviews with Netanyahu and his closest collaborators, and the other half with the catastrophic fallout from having a morally-compromised leader who has demonstrated that that he will do anything - anything - to stay out of jail. The rise of Israel’s far right, the 2023 attempted judicial coup, the October 7 attack and the Gaza War were all the direct consequences of these original sins of corruption. It all started with illegal gifts of cigars, jewelry and champaign. When these dots are connected, which the film does with primary colors (no time for subtlety here), it becomes much easier to understand why every prior Israeli leader indicted for corruption - just indicted, not even convicted - has promptly left office. Until Netanyahu.

The documentary presents a comprehensive summary of the events that have led us almost to where we are today. I say “almost” because while some of more recent events are alluded to (there’s a clip of the Lebanese pager explosions), the deaths of Sinwar, Nasrallah and Assad place the war in different, and some would say a strategically superior light.

Until, that is, you watch again the scenes of agonized hostage parents, the murders of October 7, the devastation in Gaza, suitcases of money Bibi had sent to prop up Hamas and all that led to the current moment, including the corruption cases themselves, two of which were direct attacks on freedom of the press.

As pleasing as it is to know that Iran and its axis might - might - be less dangerous today, nothing can reduce the culpability of the prime minister for the devastation that came before. Which is why a complete investigation as to the events on, before and since October 7 is long overdue.

Which brings me back to Gili Schwartz, the 20-year-old Israeli from Kibbutz Be’eri, where more than 100 of its 1,100 residents were killed and another 30 taken hostage. With all the journalists, officials, and experts who are heard on this film, hers is the voice of truth that best cuts through the haze. After explaining in devastating detail what happened in her community on that day, she responds to Netanyahu’s mantra that “total victory” can and must be the only goal.

“Total victory doesn’t actually mean anything here,” she says, as the camera pans through and above the devastated community. “You know all the death and casualties and suffering, and that’s what it looks like, in reality. That’s what those words actually mean.”

The film explains how Netanyahu’s moral flaws have brought unprecedented destruction to his own country, along with a whole lot of collateral damage to so many others.

Gili Schwartz’s response is even more important now, following the downfall of Assad, Nasrallah and Sinwar. Because the question will be asked at kitchen tables, academic conferences and newsrooms throughout the world over the coming weeks: Was the war worth it? Is this what “total victory” looks like?

Let’s assume the “best case” scenarios actually play out. Let’s suppose the decapitations of the terror leaders lead to a weakened Iran willing to give up its nuclear ambitions in order for the regime to survive. Those are huge ”ifs” that aren’t necessarily going to transpire. Much more dangerous ones are equally realistic.

Still, if the best case plays out, was the destruction worth it? Gili Schwartz is speaking a deep truth:

Nothing can make the devastation she witnessed worthwhile.

It’s like when people ask whether the Holocaust was worth it if it precipitated the establishment of Israel three years later. Leaving aside how insulting that question is to the victims, is there any validity to it? Let’s buy into the premise that Israel could only have come about as result of the world’s moment of sympathy for the Jewish people. Was the Holocaust in some sense then “good?”

Of course not. However you phrase it, the answer is definitively no. Nothing can justify the Holocaust.

With hostages continuing to die in captivity and the IDF itself questioning the logic of continuing to destroy neighborhoods already reduced to rubble, Gili Schwartz is piercing the darkness with a spear of honesty. The only truth that matters is not in some geopolitical war game or in some TV studio filled with talking heads. It’s buried in row upon row of fresh graves in cemeteries throughout the region, and in the rubble of her own community.

Netanyahu still clamors for what he calls “total victory” for the sole reason that only an endless war can keep him in in power now.

His recklessness it is warning to Americans that a government designed to serve the ego of one man is a prescription for disaster - unless the guardrails can hold.

In Israel those guardrails took to the streets in 2023 and they are doing so again. In Israel, the guardrails are the Supreme Court, the press, the military and the police - to some degree. But most of all, it is people like Gili Schwartz that stand between a nation and a moral abyss.

“Total victory doesn’t mean anything here.”

But what will mean something?

• Rebuilding Be’eri and the south will mean something. And then the north.

• Reconstructing Gaza will too, with Gulf money and leadership that renounces violence and accepts Israel.

• Creating a series of new alliances and agreements to isolate Iran and forge incentives for peace.

• Dousing the dreams of those Jewish supremacists who wish to resettle Gaza and annex the West Bank.

• Restoring the stability of Israel’s judiciary and the integrity of its military and security services.

• A non partisan inquiry into the events of Oct. 7.

• New elections in Israel.

These are the things that will mean something. These outcomes are the only victory possible, and even that will not be total.

Thank you, Gili Schwartz, for reminding us.