Eisenkot: Qatari involvement in Israel is grave matter, whether in PM’s office or election

Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to delegitimize the election, and shines a spotlight on alleged Qatari ties with the premier’s senior aides.

“I commend Netanyahu for finally condemning Qatari involvement in the State of Israel,” Eisenkot says sarcastically, referencing ongoing investigations into the Qatargate affair, in which former advisers Yisrael Einhorn and Yonatan Urich are accused of conducting public relations work for Qatar while they were employed by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Foreign involvement in Israel is an unacceptable and gravely serious matter, especially when it involves a country that funds and supports the Hamas organization,” says Eisenkot. “This is grave when it happens in the Prime Minister’s Office and grave if it occurs in the election system.”

Eisenkot says that Netanyahu “has grown accustomed to dealing with reality through lies, information engineering, and sowing chaos” and is running “an illegitimate influence operation on the Israeli public aimed at delaying the publication of election results on time and creating fictitious delegitimization for the activities of the 26th Knesset.”

He says it is unacceptable that Netanyahu is trying to use a new investigation that has not been completed “to undermine the official election results.”

He calls for an “impartial, thorough, and immediate” investigation, and demands that “an iron fist” be used against anyone tampering with the integrity of the election.

“Every decision pertaining to the election must be made with utmost reverence and with the understanding that the convening of the 26th Knesset must take place on time,” Eisenkot stresses. “Realizing the will of the voter in democratic elections is a foundational component of Israeli democracy and national resilience.”