Scrutiny around Qatargate and Bild leak may put PM one step closer to hot seat |
New revelations this week supercharged two scandals in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, drawing unprecedented criticism from political allies.
At the heart of the controversy sit the so-called Qatargate scandal and an investigation into the leak of classified intelligence to the German Bild tabloid. Seemingly separate affairs, both involve Eli Feldstein, a beleaguered former spokesman for the premier, and Jonatan Urich, a close Netanyahu aide.
In the Qatargate affair, Urich and Feldstein are suspected of taking money to spread pro-Qatari messaging to reporters, in order to boost the Gulf state’s image as a mediator in hostage talks between Israel and Hamas, all while in the prime minister’s employ.
Feldstein has also admitted to leaking classified information to Bild, as part of an alleged scheme to sway public opinion and ease pressure on Jerusalem to reach a deal with Hamas. In comments aired this week, Feldstein alleged that not only was Urich — a suspect — also involved in the plot, but Netanyahu as well.
“In order to [publicize] such a document, the prime minister must be in the picture – from beginning to end,” Feldstein said in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster.
“[Netanyahu] is the one who ultimately was behind the leak,” Feldstein said emphatically, adding that he told interrogators the same thing repeatedly after his arrest and eventual indictment over the matter.
Feldstein made the accusations and raised other controversies he claimed existed within the PMO in a three-part interview aired by Kan between Monday and Wednesday, his first media appearance since his arrest in October 2024 and subsequent indictment over the Bild affair.
His bombshell allegations have been accompanied by a series of reports in Hebrew media claiming to reveal new details on the Qatargate scandal.
Netanyahu is not currently a suspect in either the intelligence leak or the Qatargate affair, and the PMO has denied Feldstein’s allegations, continuing to insist on the premier’s innocence in both cases.
But the scandals are creeping closer to the most powerful man in Israel, while he oversees military campaigns and fragile ceasefires with Iran and its armed proxies, and while he prepares for a bruising reelection campaign.
In a segment of the Feldstein interview that aired Tuesday, he alleged that Netanyahu was the one behind the leak of classified intelligence to Bild aimed at swaying the Israeli public’s opinion regarding ongoing hostage negotiations last year.
The document in question was an internal Hamas memo purporting to show that the terror group wasn’t interested in the compromises necessary to reach a hostage deal. After it was leaked to Bild, Netanyahu used it to argue that only further military pressure would lead to the release of the hostages.
Media reports later revealed that Bild had seriously distorted the file to serve the interests of the Netanyahu government.
Beyond the document that did not actually prove anything about Hamas’s mindset was the fact that it had been branded as classified by the IDF.
Seeking to get it to the public anyway, despite concerns that an intelligence source in Gaza could be endangered by its release, Feldstein leaked it to an international news outlet, which, unlike Israeli outlets, is not beholden to Israel’s military censor.
While the tactic is not exactly unknown among Israeli government and security officials, the use of a classified military document for suspected political purposes was enough to trigger an investigation.
In the first segment of his Kan interview, Feldstein claimed that Tzachi Braverman, Netanyahu’s chief of staff and longtime confidant, learned of a secret IDF investigation into Feldstein’s leak to Bild months before it was publicized and reassured him in a private conversation that the probe could be quashed.
Although Feldstein freely named Braverman in his interview with Kan, Channel 12 reported that he had initially refused to give up his identity during a Shin Bet probe into the leak, telling the agency that he had to “think about the future,” and that if he revealed his conversation with Braverman, “neither the Shin Bet nor any other body will be able to protect my family or me from being harmed.”
Law enforcement sources told Channel 12 that Feldstein has been a “problematic witness” whose testimony has shifted over time, though they admitted investigators have little choice but to examine his claims about Braverman and whether they justify........