Report: JPost editor passed message to PM aide about payment from Qatari lobbyist

Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Zvika Klein — who was released from house arrest earlier today in connection with Qatargate — reportedly passed a message between former aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Yisrael Einhorn and Qatari lobbyist Jay Footlik.

According to the Ynet news site, after Klein returned from a trip to Qatar in 2024 arranged by Einhorn and Footlik, he was encouraged to speak about the trip with Israeli media outlets.

Klein reportedly told police investigators that Einhorn told him that “a spokesman would call me,” said to be Netanyahu aide Eli Feldstein, “and that I would tell him that his payment would come from the American,” namely Footlik.

The newspaper editor testified that he spoke to Feldstein and passed along the message, according to Ynet.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman said earlier today that Klein was questioned under caution in the Qatargate scandal due to comments he made which, they said, ostensibly linked him to efforts to promote Qatar’s image in Israel in return for “benefit.”

Sources close to Klein told media outlets that he “never received benefits or anything else from Qatar or any of its representatives” and that he visited Qatar solely as a journalist.