Netanyahu aide and Qatargate suspect Jonatan Urich has no security clearance – report
Longtime senior adviser said to have halted his application rather than take polygraph test; PM’s Office dismisses account as fake news that ‘provides grounds for defamation lawsuit’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
A longtime key aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspected of illicit ties with Qatar has no security clearance and halted his application for clearance rather than take a polygraph test, according to a Sunday report.
According to i24 News, in the wake of the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack, the prime minister sought to replace political spokesman Topaz Luk with Jonatan Urich, who had worked for a decade in the Prime Minister’s Office without a security clearance — prompting Netanyahu’s chief of staff Tzachi Braverman to pressure the Shin Bet security agency to expedite Urich’s clearance.
However, Urich withdrew from of the process just before he was slated to undergo a polygraph test, around the same time he had begun filling out a questionnaire that included queries about any foreign countries and foreign nationals, the report said.
Responding to the report, the Prime Minister’s Office released a terse statement describing it as “completely fake news” that “borders on libel and provides grounds for a defamation lawsuit.”
In the so-called Qatargate affair, Urich and former Netanyahu military affairs spokesman Eli Feldstein are suspected of multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corruption charges involving lobbyists and businessmen.
According to a brief summary of investigators’ suspicions released by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court earlier this month, an American lobbying company called The Third Circle, owned by American pro-Qatar lobbyist Jay Footlik, formed a direct connection with Urich for the purposes of disseminating positive messages in Israeli media regarding Doha’s role as a facilitator in hostage deal negotiations between Israel and Hamas, and spreading negative messaging about Egypt’s role in the negotiations.
Urich, the primary suspect in the affair, allegedly employed Feldstein to help in the work of being in contact with journalists to advance this messaging.
Further filling out the information regarding the case, a police investigator told the court that Urich “and others” relayed information to journalists under the pretense that it came from senior Israeli political or security officials, when in reality Urich and Feldstein were spreading messaging emanating from the Qatari government via Footlik’s lobbying company.
Urich and Feldstein were not directly employed by the Prime Minister’s Office. Urich was employed as a media adviser for Netanyahu’s Likud party, and Feldstein was hired as an independent media adviser in the PMO after he was denied security clearance by the Shin Bet in April 2024.
Netanyahu frequently works with people who are not official employees of the PMO and are thus not legally required to obtain security clearance.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu accused the police of holding Urich and Feldstein “hostage,” claiming that investigators were grasping at straws with no actual evidence to back up their “political investigation.”
The prime minister, who claims to be the victim of a “deep state” plot against him, has also argued that the Qatargate probe was only ordered by Attorney General Baharav-Miara and begun by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to create an ostensible conflict of interest, in which the prime minister could not fire the security chief who was investigating his office.
The premier’s assertion appeared to be based on little evidence and contradicted the known sequence of events, as Netanyahu only initiated the process to dismiss Bar after the investigation into Qatar had already been launched.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.