Jerusalem Post editor questioned over Qatargate says he was ‘so naive’

Zvika Klein, the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post who was questioned last by police as a suspect in the Qatargate case, says he was very “naive.”

“As time goes by, I go over the conversations. I was so naive,” he tells Army Radio.

“It’s a delusional situation in which people who work with the prime minister [also take into account] the interests of a different country,” he says.

“I know other journalists who [spokesman] Eli Feldstein was in contact with who believed they were receiving a [news] item from the prime minister. It’s very disturbing,” he says.

The Qatargate affair involves suspicions that two aides to Netanyahu, senior adviser Jonatan Urich and former spokesman Feldstein, committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corruption allegations involving lobbyists and businessmen. Urich is in custody, and Feldstein is under house arrest. Police also want to question a third aide, Yisrael Einhorn, who currently lives in Serbia.

At a hearing on Tuesday regarding the detention of Urich and Feldstein, police indicated that they suspect Urich and others — while spreading pro-Qatar messaging — framed the information as having originated from senior Israeli officials in the Prime Minister’s Office. “Urich relayed messages to the media on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Office. The messages were [originally] conveyed by an entity that maintains ties to and is funded by the state of Qatar, and they were presented as messages originating from a political or security source,” a police investigator reportedly said in court.

Klein was summoned to give testimony in the case on Monday and then cautioned as a suspect. He was initially released to house arrest, but this restriction was canceled on Thursday. He has decried his arrest and denied any involvement in the affair.

Other journalists have also given testimony, but only as witnesses.