Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give an explanation regarding the Qatargate scandal in which three of his aides are accused of acting as lobbyists for Qatar.
Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein, ex-campaign adviser Yisrael Einhorn, and former aide Jonatan Urich are suspected of taking money to spearhead a public relations campaign to cast Doha in a positive light while in the prime minister’s employ for over a year after the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught, despite the Gulf state’s strong ties to the Palestinian terror group.
“Netanyahu, look me in the eye. You and I know that Feldstein was your employee. He was close to you throughout the war. He was with us in the bunker. He was next to us in the aquarium at the Prime Minister’s Office,” says Gantz, addressing Netanyahu directly during a 40-signature debate in the Knesset called by the opposition to express opposition to the government’s policies.
Gantz’s then-National Unity party joined Netanyahu’s government days after October 7, 2023, to form an emergency unity government. It left the government in June 2024 over being sidelined from wartime decision-making, as well as unresolved issues ranging from the postwar vision for Gaza to the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
“I suggest you look the people of Israel straight in the eye and finally explain how a person who received money from Qatar sat next to you at the most critical moments for Israel’s security,” he continues.
“If you didn’t know, fire everyone who had a hand in this,” Gantz adds. “And if you did know, it’s more serious than any of the cases currently being conducted against you in the courts.”
The premier is on trial for fraud and breach of trust in three cases and bribery in one of them.
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