Bennett: PM must quit over Qatari payments to aide; if received knowingly, it’s ‘treason’
Former PM calls out Netanyahu for ‘cover-up’ of scandal and resistance to investigation; Likud retorts that he’s a ‘crook’ for building 2021 coalition with Arab party Ra’am
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no longer has the moral authority to send troops into battle and must resign, in the wake of new allegations that the salary of one of his top aides was paid by Qatar.
Bennett argued that knowingly accepting such funds constituted “treason,” after the Kan public broadcaster aired recordings of an Israeli businessman based in the Gulf saying he had transferred money from a Qatar-employed US lobbyist to Eli Feldstein, while the latter was working as Netanyahu’s spokesman.
Meanwhile, Feldstein’s lawyers said that the payments he received from the businessman were for services he provided “for the Prime Minister’s Office, and not for Qatar.”
In wake of this, Bennett tweeted: “This morning, it emerged that the salary of Netanyahu’s media adviser for security matters was paid by the Qatari government.”
“I’ll say it again because it’s so hard to fathom: The terrorist government of Qatar financed the security spokesman of the Israeli prime minister, during wartime. This is no longer a rumor, but a fact that was published this morning. The whole question now is who knew what.”
Kan noted in its report that for at least part of Feldstein’s time working for Netanyahu, the aide did not receive any direct salary from the Prime Minister’s Office because he had not passed a security clearance. In the recording, the businessman, Gil Birger, claims the service performed by Feldstein for the payment was related to the hostages. Qatar has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas.
Denouncing Qatar’s hands as “stained with rivers of Jewish blood,” for its years of support for Hamas, Bennett said that if he were to have discovered that one of his staffers had accepted money from a country such as Belgium, he would have immediately fired him and demanded Shin Bet and police investigations into his office to find out what foreign interests might have infiltrated it.
“But this is not Belgium, it’s Qatar… That’s a hundred times worse,” he said. “If it was done knowingly, it’s treason against Israel. As simple as that.”
“If it was not done knowingly, meaning the adviser did not know that the source of his salary was from Qatar, then Qatar is operating rogue agents in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, and this is a security failure of the highest level,” he declared.
Despite this, Bennett said, nobody involved in the so-called “Qatargate” scandal has been fired, and “Netanyahu, for some reason, continues to cover up the event and is fighting the investigators.”|
The Shin Bet and police are currently investigating several members of staff in the Prime Minister’s Office for alleged improper ties with Qatar.
Netanyahu has announced his intention to dismiss Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and is considering convening a cabinet meeting to carry this out, potentially on Thursday. The Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday that before such a move, the government must receive a recommendation from the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee.
In light of what is happening, Bennett said, “the government and its head have completely shattered any shred of public trust in their motives” and “have no moral authority to send soldiers into battle.”
He called for the government and all its members to resign “today” and to “allow the people of Israel to elect new leadership that will rebuild Israel.”
Responding to Bennett’s statement, the premier’s ruling Likud party called the former prime minister a “crook who stole the votes of the right and formed a government with Mansour Abbas and the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Bennett “brought Gazan workers into Israel for the first time since Operation Protective Edge,” the spokesman said, referring to a decision to allow workers in, which the current Netanyahu government maintained, upon taking office.
He also “doubled and tripled the money for Gaza [and] is causing confusion over a fake affair that never happened,” Likud stated. “On every other issue, he is silent as a fish, and for good reason.”
Shortly after Likud put out its statement, police confirmed that they had detained two suspects in the Qatar scandal.
Bennett held the premiership after forming an alliance with Yair Lapid and a coalition of right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties, and for the first time in decades, a majority Arab party — the Islamist Ra’am — from 2021 to 2022.
That coalition marked the first interruption of Netanyahu’s premiership since 2009, and many on the right staunchly opposed the move and pressured members of Bennett’s Yamina party to leave it. They succeeded after a year, when party MKs toppled the government, triggering elections that returned Netanyahu to office.
Bennett is seen as highly likely to return to politics ahead of the next election, and many recent opinion polls have predicted a strong showing for him. A Channel 12 survey released earlier this month found that if elections were held now, with Bennett running, the former prime minister could assemble a 62-seat ruling coalition without having to rely on Ra’am or any factions in the pro-Netanyahu bloc.
The survey also included several head-to-head matchups between Netanyahu and his political rivals as to who is better suited to be prime minister, with Bennett the only one to outpoll the premier at 36% of respondents to Netanyahu’s 34%.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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