Multiple officials in the Prime Minister’s Office have been accused of taking funds from Qatar. Where did such allegations begin, and how have they affected Israel’s highest echelons?
In the 1970’s, the USA was rocked by a scandal when several individuals were discovered as having broken into the Watergate Hotel to plant listening devices in the DNC. American authorities associated the funds paid to the burglars with the Nixon administration, and the resultant attempts to conceal the connection grew to the point where Nixon resigned.
Recently, Israel has begun experiencing what many are calling Qatar-Gate, as various investigative authorities pursue a connection between Qatar and aides in the Prime Minister’s Office. Many details of the investigation have not yet been made public, but what do we know about the story so far?
Background
The affair began with a Haaretz report in November 2024 that Yonatan Urich and Srulik Einhorn, two of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s senior and closest advisors, built a campaign to whitewash Qatar ahead of the World Cup held in the country in 2022. The two, through their company ‘Perception’, which advises politicians around the world, joined forces with another Israeli company and created a marketing plan for Qatar, despite its being the main funder and supporter of Hamas and sponsor of Al Jazeera, presenting it as a country aspiring for peace and stability. The advisors outlined a way to embed the message that Qatar is not a state sponsoring terror, but works with many countries and invests resources to bring peace and stability to conflict zones.
Qatar is not listed as an enemy of the United States or of Israel. Negotiations for the release of the hostages have been conducted in Qatar with an Israeli team including government figures. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is the biggest U.S. military installation in the Middle East and can house more than 10,000 U.S. troops. On the other hand, the Brookings Institute, which has a Doha Center located in Qatar once headed by Martin Indyk, was found by the NYTimes to be among more than a dozen Washington, D.C.–based research groups and think tanks to have received payments from foreign governments while encouraging American government officials to support policies aligned with those foreign governments’ agendas.
Improving Qatar’s image was aimed at the World Cup soccer matches held there in 2022. Accordingly, the target audiences of the campaign were soccer fans, environmental activists, and the Jewish population in the diaspora, primarily in the United States. Thus the two allegedly suggested inviting Israeli journalists from several media outlets, alongside leading social media influencers from the United States and the UK, to visit stadiums and be exposed to the many ways in which Qatar adjusted itself to the visits of Israelis – options for kosher food or welcoming Shabbat in one of the stadiums, and more. Qatar even suggested establishing a temporary synagogue in the capital Doha, to illustrate to Israelis and Jews how invited they are to come to a seemingly peace-loving country. Urich and ‘Perception’ denied the allegations.
A few months went by, and journalist Ofer Hadad revealed on Channel 12 that during his tenure as a military spokesperson in the Prime Minister’s Office, Eli Feldstein was employed by an international company funded by Qatar, where hostage release talks took place, with the purpose of improving Qatar’s image regarding the negotiations for the return of hostages. Following these two exposures, an investigation was opened by the ISA, which later turned into a criminal investigation.
Yonatan Urich
Yonatan Urich, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson, has accompanied him for more than a decade. Urich receives his salary from the Likud party. He is not a state employee, at least not formally. Allegations against him include bribery, contact with a foreign agent, money laundering, and tax offenses, and later an additional offense of disclosing secret information. Besides this, he is suspected in the leaking of classified documents to the German newspaper Bild.
Eli Feldstein
Eli Feldstein, former spokesperson for the Gaza Division in the IDF Spokesperson Unit and spokesperson for Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, moved to work in the Prime Minister’s Office following the outbreak of the war. Netanyahu presumably made him, against the backdrop of the tension between him and then Minister of Defense Galant and senior security officials, the role of military spokesperson. At one point, Feldstein did not receive the appropriate security clearance from the ISA required to work in the Prime Minister’s Office, and therefore his direct employment by the state was terminated. Nevertheless, Feldstein continued to serve as Netanyahu’s communications advisor and worked with reporters. Feldstein entered the public consciousness after being interrogated in November 2024 in the Bild affair, and an indictment was filed against him for allegedly disclosing secret information with the intention of harming state security, as well as for obstructing justice.
After an indictment was already filed against him in this affair, he came under separate suspicion due to Qatar Gate. According to suspicion, an American Jew named Jay Footlik, who serves as a Qatari lobbyist in the United States, secured his services to promote pro-Qatari messages. It is alleged that Feldstein indeed ‘pushed’ items to various Israeli journalists that presented Qatar in a positive light. The journalists were sure they were receiving messages from the Prime Minister, while it turned out they were receiving messages from the Qatari lobbyist. The messages portrayed Qatar in a positive light and Egypt in a negative light. Like Urich, Feldstein is also suspected of allegedly accepting bribes, contact with a foreign agent, and additional offenses.
Jay Footlik
Jay Footlik is an American Jew affiliated with the left. He serves officially as a Qatari lobbyist in the United States, where lobbyists are required to register in an orderly manner. He claims that his actions in the affair were done out of pure altruism, and he did not receive any compensation from the Qataris nor has he acted on their behalf. Footlik stated that he acted out of a desire to advance the return of hostages, given his good connections in Qatar. According to his claim, he believed that presenting Qatar in a positive light would promote negotiations and return the hostages. For this purpose, he met with prominent Israeli figures, ranging from the Chief Rabbis of Israel to ministers, Knesset members, academia, and more. It should be noted that Footlik did not hide his being a Qatari lobbyist, but claimed that his actions on this matter are not part of his lobbying activities. To promote his activities, he hired Eli Feldstein, allegedly without knowing that Feldstein worked in the Prime Minister’s Office.
It is alleged that Footlik is functioning as a direct Qatari agent, specializing in sowing chaos and providing bribes in many countries. Footlik has yet to be interrogated in the affair, and his attorney is in contact with the police to arrange for his testimony in the United States. According to his attorney, Footlik himself is not suspected in the affair and is only required to testify as a witness.
Gil Berger
Gil Berger is an Israeli businessman. In a conversation on Kan, he admitted that he transferred money from Jay Footlik to spokesperson Eli Feldstein’s office. In a recording released, Berger made a strange claim that he came to the aid of the lobbyist, who asked him to carry out the money transfer for VAT reasons. When Berger returned to the country, he was interrogated by the Lahav 433 investigative office of the Israel Police and is one of the suspects in the affair.
Feldstein’s alleged contract with Berger guaranteed him a sum of at least 40,000 shekels per month. When Berger’s recording was published, Feldstein’s attorneys stated that the money Feldstein received from Berger was ‘for strategic and communication services that Feldstein provided to the Prime Minister’s Office, not for Qatar.’
The attorneys stated “This was a temporary and partial solution by individuals in the Prime Minister’s Office to the difficulty that arose regarding the payment of Feldstein’s salary from the Prime Minister’s Office, without any impact on the identity of the service recipient – the Prime Minister. To the extent that there is a connection between the businessman in question and other parties, including Qatar, this was not presented to Feldstein and was not known to him.”
It is suspected that the individual in question is Yonatan Urich. Feldstein explicitly stated that Urich instructed him to act in the manner alleged, and he carried out the instructions in good faith. This claim has not been widely accepted by the investigators.
Attorney Gilad Shar
Jay Footlik approached a well-known Israeli attorney representing anti-government protest organizations and the judicial reform, and consulted him about a campaign to influence Israeli public opinion in favor of Qatar’s mediation and journalists’ engagement on the matter. It is unclear what details Attorney Gilad Shar was exposed to from Footlik. He stated that there was no obstacle to carrying out public diplomacy for Qatar, as it is not an enemy state. On the other hand, Attorney Shar petitioned on behalf of an organization against the dismissal of the head of the ISA, Ronen Bar, and stated that there are serious suspicions surrounding the affair in which a hostile state employed the Prime Minister’s advisors.
Eli Cohen
Jay Footlik tried to enlist a number of senior figures from the coalition and the opposition. The exception that does not prove the rule is Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Eli Cohen. He tried to prompt him to act positively toward Qatar and was expelled from his office when Minister Cohen discovered his relations with the state, as we published last week. The American lobbyist tried to get Cohen to act positively, but when the latter learned of his connection he cut the meeting short and ordered him to leave his office.
The affair has several other different and important figures, such as the Likud campaigner in the Israeli elections Israel Einhorn, a business partner of Yonatan Urich. He is one of the suspects in the affair, but he avoids coming to Israel so as not to get arrested in this investigation and in the investigation of the Bild affair.
The affair is far from over, and combines a number of issues both foreign and domestic. Israel must wait and see if this turns out to be fabrication or a serious infiltration of Qatar into the highest levels of Israel’s government.
