Shin Bet to probe Netanyahu ex-aide’s ties with Qatar; PMO accuses agency of silence on other cases

The Shin Bet will be investigating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein for alleged ties to Qatar, the agency says in a letter to the Democrats party MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv.

Feldstein, who is separately charged with harming national security in a case involving the theft and leaking of classified IDF documents, was allegedly paid by Doha to feed top Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories, Hebrew media reported earlier this week, as the premier’s critics demanded a probe of alleged Qatari influence in the Prime Minister’s Office.

“There has recently been an examination on the issue of protecting secrets in the Prime Minister’s Office and other government offices, as well as about those in the immediate vicinity of secure individuals,” says the Shin Bet in the letter, which does not name Feldstein.

“Pursuant to various inquiries received by us on the subject in question, and after an initial examination carried out and based on its findings, the service will also examine the claims brought by you,” the intelligence service writes to Kariv.

In response, the PMO asks in a statement whether the Shin Bet investigated Kariv’s “serious criminal leak from the [Knesset] Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, even though a year has already passed since the offense was committed?”

Kariv is suspected of leaking protocols from a classified meeting in December 2023.

“Did the Shin Bet investigate the contacts of Benny Gantz and Ram Ben-Barak’s Fifth Dimension company to sell sensitive information technology to the government without authorization?” asks the PMO in the statement.

In 2020, the acting State Attorney ordered a criminal probe into Fifth Dimension over allegations of impropriety in its efforts to secure a lucrative contract with the Israel Police.

The PMO says it is accustomed to “false accusations… such as secretly recording an officer, falsifying minutes, and blackmailing an officer with threats — all of which turned out to be fake news.”

“So it will be this time too,” Netanyahu’s office contends.