Bennett: Netanyahu must quit over Qatar payments scandal; if his aide knew, it’s treason

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no longer has any moral authority to send troops into battle and must resign in the wake of newly reported evidence that the salary of one of his top aides was paid by Qatar, former prime minister Naftali Bennett declares — arguing that knowingly accepting such funds constitutes “treason.”

“This morning, it emerged that the salary of Netanyahu’s media adviser for security matters was paid by the Qatari government,” Bennett tweets.

“I’ll say it again, because it’s so hard to grasp: The terrorist government of Qatar financed the security spokesman of the Israeli prime minister, during a time of war. This is no longer a rumor, but a fact that was published this morning. The whole question now is who knew what.”

According to recordings aired today by the Kan public broadcaster, an Israeli businessman based in the Gulf said that he transferred money from a Qatar-employed US lobbyist to Eli Feldstein, while the latter was working as Netanyahu’s spokesman.

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.

Denouncing Qatar’s hands as “stained with rivers of Jewish blood,” Bennett says 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.

“Isn’t the prime minister of Israel and his office supposed to care only for the interests of Israel?” Bennett asks, adding that if the money was accepted “knowingly, then it is treason against the State of Israel.”

“If it was not intentional, meaning that 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 declares.

Despite this, nobody involved in the so-called Qatargate scandal has been fired and “Netanyahu, for some reason, continues to cover up the event and fights the investigators,” Bennett continues.

The Shin Bet is 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 reportedly considering convening a cabinet meeting to carry this out, potentially tomorrow.

In light of what is happening, “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,” Bennett insists — calling for the government to resign “today” and to “allow the people of Israel to elect a new leadership that will rebuild Israel.”