PM to sue ex-defense minister Ya’alon for suggesting he received millions from Qatar
Netanyahu accuses former colleague of ‘despicable lie’ for citing ‘unproven intelligence information’ claiming Doha wired tens of millions of dollars to the premier
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that he is suing former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon for comments suggesting that he received tens of millions of dollars from Qatar, amid an investigation into alleged ties between Doha and several of the prime minister’s aides.
In a recent interview with the Kan public broadcaster, Ya’alon said there was “unproven intelligence information” from documents “presented as Emirati intelligence” showing “that the prime minister also received $15 million in 2012, and in 2018 received $50 million from Qatar.”
Netanyahu, in a video posted to his X account, accused Ya’alon of spreading “a despicable lie” and warned that he has “decided not to be silent any longer.”
The premier claimed that Ya’alon’s comments were part of a wider “campaign of threats of extortion” against him and his family, which he said would not stop him “from continuing to make the right decisions for the security of our country.”
“I’ll tell you this — I didn’t receive anything from Qatar, but I will receive from Bogie,” Netanyahu said, referring to Ya’alon by his popular nickname. “This is just the beginning.”
Netanyahu said he filed a lawsuit against Ya’alon, who responded by asserting the prime minister was “feeling the pressure” from the probe investigating the alleged ties between his aides and Qatar.
“I hear that Hamas’s financier intends to sue me,” Ya’alon said, referring to the millions of dollars sent monthly to Hamas by Doha in the years leading up to the terror group’s October 2023 onslaught, with Netanyahu’s blessing.
“Someone is feeling the pressure of the Shin Bet investigation, which has been put under gag order,” Ya’alon added, referring to sweeping gag order that a court imposed on the high-profile probe.
Ya’alon, a former member of the ruling Likud party who has become a fierce critic of Netanyahu since being replaced as defense minister in 2016, also charged that the Shin Bet probe was driving the premier’s alleged efforts to remove the agency’s chief Ronen Bar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
The investigation was launched following revelations that Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein — who has been charged with harming national security in a case involving the theft and leaking of classified IDF documents — worked for Qatar via an international firm contracted by Doha to feed Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories, while he was still working for the prime minister, and amid the ceasefire negotiations.
Last November, it was also reported that top Netanyahu aides Jonatan Urich and Yisrael Einhorn did public relations work for Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup there.
Qatar is a key mediator in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas for a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza, hosting negotiations in Doha this week. The hostages were abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led an invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Israel has no diplomatic relations with Qatar, which hosts Hamas’s leadership. For years, with Netanyahu’s approval, Qatar transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to the terror group in Gaza.
Netanyahu has reportedly been preparing to fire Bar, who told senior staff last week that he won’t step down until the hostages are returned and a state commission of inquiry is approved to investigate the October 7, 2023, attack and management of the ensuing war.
Ministers are also moving to fire Baharav-Miara, who has frequently clashed with the government over its policies.
