"Qatargate." How and why the surroundings of Netanyahu could help the sponsors Hamas

The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu during the interrogation on March 31 took responsibility for the leakage of information from the meeting of the military-political cabinet. Advisor and spokeswoman Netanyahu are suspected of disusable work in a country that is one of the sponsors of Hamas. Netanyahu claims that the investigation is “one big bluff” in order to shift it from the post. The defense insists that one of the defendants in the case received money through American lobbyists, because he did not go through the general security service Shabak and could not officially receive a salary in the office of the government. Soon after the start of the investigation, the government decided to dismiss the head of Shabak, critics of Netanyahu do not consider this a coincidence.

Content

• Qatarian money and leakage of secret information

• Qatar is a neugat state?

• What's next

Qatarian business risks becoming one of the most high -profile political scandals in Israel against the backdrop of the war with Hamas. The case began with the detention and interrogations of now former employees of the office of the Prime Minister-adviser to Netanyahu Jonathan Urich and press secretary of the Prime Minister Eli Feldstein. According to the special forces of the Israeli police “Lahav 433” and the general security service of Shabak, they received money from the American company-Lobbist Katar for PR services, who allegedly provided the government of this country.

The defendants could spread information among journalists to help improve the image of Qatar as an intermediary in negotiations between Israel and Hamas. In addition, according to investigators, they could transfer Katar secret information from the meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers. Now Feldstein and Urich are under house arrest.

The common circle of the Catangaite defendants is already quite wide: among them the editor -in -chief of The Jerusalem Post Zvik Klein, the American lobbyist of Qatar Jay Talik, Israeli businessman Gil Birger and political strategist Israel Ainhorn, who previously worked for the Likud right batch, close to the Netanyahu family and is now hiding in Serbia.

In addition to bribes, the defendants are charged with tax crimes and confidence abuse. The police interrogated several famous Israeli journalists. All were released without any restrictions.

On March 31, the Prime Minister Netanyahu himself was questioned as part of the case-as a witness.

Qatarian money and leakage of secret information

The position of Israel in relation to Qatar is double, as well as the actions of the Qatari emirs themselves. To preserve the sovereignty and the ability to earn money, Qatar built a largely unique strategy for the Middle East - not to enter any of the blocks, but to build good relations with everyone and be useful and necessary for key players in the region. Qatar perfectly understands what soft power is, and knows how to use it, skillfully establishing contacts with elites in different countries. Qatarian funds are invested in American universities. In the early 2010s, Katar bought the Paris Saint-Germain football club. In 2022, the country hosted the World Cup.

Since 2019, Foot Circle has officially operated on the Qatar government, promoting its interests in the United States.

Catarus strategy is not to enter any of the blocks, but to build good relations with all

But at the same time, Qatar is an active player in the Muslim world. In Israel, the country is directly called the sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East. “There are three things that you are obliged to understand and remember when it comes to“ Qatangaite ”, and it does not matter how many information tricks will try to feed you,” wrote former Israeli Prime Minister Natalie Bennett. -Firstly, Qatar is the main engine Hamas. Secondly, the advisers of the prime minister worked for Qatar, and not for us. Thirdly, all this happened during the war in which our children fight. ”

In recent years, Qatar has been finances the majority of Sunni terrorist organizations in the Middle East, including the Muslim Brothers and Khayyat Tahrir al-Sham in Syria. It is in the capital of Katar, Doha, the main office of the so -called political wing Hamas. Qatar provided refuge and protection to the leaders of Hamas Ismail Hania (liquidated by Israel in Tehran on July 31, 2024) and Khaledu Mashal (alive and located in Qatar).

Since 2019, Foot Circle has officially operated on the Qatar government, promoting its interests in the United States.

In Doha is the main office of the so -called political wing Hamas

In the period from 2012 to 2021, Qatar provided a help sector in the amount of $ 1.3 billion. The money was supposed to go to the construction, healthcare and agriculture that needed families and salaries to the Hamas government. In fact, the main part of the funds was spent on creating a Hamas military infrastructure and preparing an attack on Israel. Hamas financing lasted until October 7, 2023. De facto Qatar turned out to be one of the two key sponsors of the Hamas war with Israel, along with Iran.

The key element of the Qatari soft power is the largest al-jazir media holding in the Arab world, which is full of control of the Qatar powers. The Al-Jazis information policy can be described as panarabism and Islamic fundamentalism. In other words, Qatar invests huge resources in the propaganda of the unification of the Arab world around the values ​​of traditional Islam.

Since 2019, Foot Circle has officially operated on the Qatar government, promoting its interests in the United States.

The influence of the TV channel in the Middle East is colossal - he has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to withdraw tens and hundreds of thousands of people in different countries of the Middle East on the streets. At the same time, the channel harshly criticizes the authorities of almost all Arab countries except Qatar. And therefore, Al-Jazira is officially prohibited in Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and even in Palestinian autonomy.

Since 2019, Foot Circle has officially operated on the Qatar government, promoting its interests in the United States.

Al-Jazira harshly criticizes the authorities of almost all Arab countries except Qatar

Al-Jazira works in the most active way in the gas sector,gives out certificates and armor with the inscriptions of the “press” to the regular militants Hamas and de facto Prokhamasov propaganda . Al-Jazira actually produced the direct broadcasts of the liberation ceremony of Israeli hostages in January-February 2025, which rendered a huge Hamas service.

The transfer of details of discussion of negotiations with Hamas Katar, who is an intermediary in these negotiations, could weaken the negotiation positions of Israel, since Qatar could use this information to provide pressure. Theoretically, Qatar could even transmit information from the security office of Israel Hamas. That is, the actions of the suspects, if they really took place, could cause Israeli safety.

At the same time, Qatar, like Egypt, needs to relieve yourself with suspicion of cooperation with Hamas in order to remain an important US partner in the Middle East.

Egypt is a major recipient of American financial assistance, which is estimated at $ 2.1 billion per year. The Israeli special services have developed good working relations with Egyptian intelligence, which even warned Israeli colleagues on the eve of the attack on Israel on October 7 that Hamas is “preparing something unusual”.

Israel, in turn, provided Egypt in assistance in surgery against ISIS in Sinai. At the same time, it was from the territory of Egypt through the Rafach checkpoint and along the underground tunnels under the border for many years that Hamas was supplied with weapons, ammunition and components for the production of missiles. The official Cairo, however, claims that corruption is to blame for this, with which the authorities are fighting and even planting officers convicted of involvement in the smuggling in the GAZ sector.

A researcher at the Atlantic Council research institute Ksenia Svetlova explains that positive reports on the role of Qatar in negotiations and the simultaneous underestimation of the role of Egypt could cause direct damage to Israeli relations with Egypt.

Qatar is a neugat state?

Oddly enough, Netanyahu himself does not see the problem in Qatar - Netanyahu approved the pre -war assistance to the gas sector from Qatar. “Qatar is a complex state, but not enemy,” the prime minister said after Katangait was in full swing. As it became known a week after the interrogation of Netanyahu, the prime minister fully supported his former employees, taking responsibility for the leakage of information from the meeting of the military-political cabinet. After that, part of the suspicions from Feldstein and Urich was removed and both were released under house arrest.

Netanyahu calls the “Qatangaite” “Katangaite” “One Big Blef” in order to prevent the resignation of the head of Shabak and “dump the right head of government”.

The investigation was superimposed on the departure of the head of the general security service of Israel Ronen Bar. The government decided to resign on March 21. The participation of Shabak in the investigation of the case, in which the Prime Minister is a witness, creates a conflict of interests, which at least complicates or postpone the resignation of the bar. Netanyahu claims that it was precisely for this that Katangait was invented.

To establish exactly what happened before-the decision of the Prime Minister to dismiss the head of the Shabak or the beginning of the investigation, and whether there is a causal relationship between these events, is now impossible.

What's next

However, despite the support of the suspects from Netanyahu, the suspicion of the work of Urich and Feldstein on Qatar remains in force. On March 19, the Kan television radio corporation published audio recordings of the Israeli businessman Gil Birger, in which he confirmed to reporters that he had transferred money to Feldstein at the request of his friend, American lobbyist Jay Fullya, formerly consultant Bill Clinton and John Kerry in the neighboring East, and now working for the Qatari government. It is known that the foot was met with the main rabbis of Israel and asked them for letters in support of Qatar, but was refused.

Feldstein received 40 thousand shekels (about $ 10 thousand) per month for his work from a foot through Birger. Feldstein’s lawyers claimed that with the help of a birger and a foot in the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, the problem of paying his salary was solved, since Feldstein did not go through the shabak, did not have admission to work in the office of the head of government and therefore was not officially employed there.

Since 2019, Foot Circle has officially operated on the Qatar government, promoting its interests in the United States.

Lawyers claim that Feldstein received money from Katar's lobbyists instead

On suspicion of the police, Feldstein’s wages were organized by adviser Netanyahu Yonatan Urich and the owner of a communication agency working for the Likud party, Israel Ainhorn, a friend of the son of Netanyahu Yira. Yair is an influential person both in Likud and in the office of the Prime Minister, in particular he is responsible for propaganda work on the Internet and, according to rumors, has a serious impact on personnel appointments in the Israeli government. Yair Netanyahu constantly lives in Miami, and Israel Ainhorn in Serbia.

Urich denies all this. According to reports in the Israeli media, during the confrontation, Feldstein directly accused Urich of lies.

It remains unclear how the person who failed the check of the Shabak was still allowed to work in the office of the prime minister, and whether he had actual access to secret information. As the expert on special services and terrorist organizations, a historian, teacher of Tel Aviv University, explained, and a former analyst at Israeli military intelligence Aman Yakov Falkov, in the prime minister’s office there is an security officer constantly contacting Shabak. He is obliged to monitor who is constantly in the office.

The source of The Insider in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister says that everyone who goes to work is obliged to inform the security service about all business relations, partners and clients-their own and family members. If there is the slightest suspicion of a conflict of interests or a threat of leakage of secret information, Shabak conducts an audit and may not allow a candidate to work. Apparently, this is how it was with Eli Feldstein.

In addition, Yakov Falkov explains: the prime minister has its own physical protection system and only through it can you get to the office of the office. A person who has not passed a checker check should be specially marked with a computer. The system of physical verification at the entrance was supposed to see that such a person with a mark began to go to the office as to work, and report this to Shabak. But in the case of Feldstein, for some reason this did not happen.

What threatens Netanyahu? If it is proved that people from the environment of the Prime Minister of Israel really worked for the state-the Hamas sponsor, this will at least affect the image and add arguments to political opponents. However, in order for his voters to turn out from Netanyahu, and even more so members of his coalition, evidence of damage to Israel should be much more significant than just earnings of people in his environment. The opposite effect is also possible - if Netanyahu is able to convince the majority that he was the victim of the conspiracy, and the matter is sucked out of the finger.

Since 2019, Foot Circle has officially operated on the Qatar government, promoting its interests in the United States.

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