Liberman: Any potential state commission of inquiry should also probe Qatargate

By Sam Sokol 22 December 2025, 2:48 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"

Yisrael Beytenu party chief Avigdor Liberman holds a faction meeting in the Knesset in Jerusalem on November 24, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman says that any state commission of inquiry established by the next government must also probe the so-called Qatargate scandal, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close aides are suspected of multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm while they were working for the prime minister.

He also criticizes the government for advancing legislation establishing a contentious politically appointed “national state investigation committee” into the failures surrounding Hamas’s onslaught on October 7, 2023.

The plan is for the government-backed committee to conduct the investigation rather than an independent state commission of inquiry, which the government opposes but which polls show is backed by the majority of the public.

Liberman also slams the cabinet’s decision to shut down Army Radio, dismissing it as a politically motivated move related to the upcoming Likud primaries.