Prominent journalist Chaim Levinson has been dismissed from his position at the Haaretz newspaper after it emerged he earned at least NIS 200,000 ($61,000) from consultant Yisrael “Srulik” Einhorn, one of several aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspected of illicit ties to Qatar.
Levinson, who has called the allegations in the so-called Qatargate affair “inflated,” apologized for failing to provide full disclosure, but denied working for the Gulf state, a key backer of Hamas, which mediated the Gaza ceasefire along with Egypt and the US.
Haaretz, which broke the Qatargate story last November, reported Thursday that Levinson, 41, was contracted by Einhorn’s Perception consultancy from 2019 to 2024 to ghostwrite material for election campaigns in the Balkans, where Einhorn is an adviser to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
For part of the time, Levinson was Haaretz’s political correspondent and Einhorn was an election campaign manager for Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Levinson interviewed Einhorn at least twice for Haaretz, once for a 2019 article on the Likud campaign, and again at the 2022 Haaretz Democracy Conference, the newspaper said. The journalist has frequently expressed skepticism of the Qatargate charges, the newspaper noted.
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Levinson, who spent 17 years at the left-leaning newspaper, had previously disclosed having a personal, but not business, relationship with Einhorn. He failed to disclose his business ties to Einhorn even after fellow Haaretz reporter Bar Peleg broke the Qatargate story, the newspaper said in a statement on Thursday.
Aides Yisrael Einhorn (left) and Jonatan Urich (center) with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019. (Courtesy/ File)
Peleg, who also reported Levinson’s dismissal Thursday, had “a few days ago” received “material indicating commercial ties” between Levinson and Perception, Haaretz said.
Levinson was subsequently summoned to a meeting with Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn, who told Levinson that the new information “would not enable him to continue in the newspaper,” Haaretz said.
Levinson resigned, which he announced publicly on X on Thursday morning, before it was reported that he was dismissed over his ties to Einhorn.
Channel 12, where Levinson co-hosts a popular talk show with journalist Ofira Asayag on Friday evenings, said it “was “reading about this for the first time” and would investigate. Haaretz reported that Levinson asked to sit out the next show on Friday.
The show, “Ofira and Levinson,” featured Einhorn’s mother, Talia, a controversial legal scholar, as a guest in August. She walked out on-air after Asayag asked her how Einhorn’s involvement in Qatargate “makes her feel as a mother.”
זה נראה כאילו עשו אמבוש גם לאמא של הבוגד וגם לחבר של הבוגד. לא הבנתי למה כתבו איינהורן נגד לוינסון ראש בראש כשרק אופירה תוקפת? לוינסון חבר שנים של איינהורן, מסתיר הקשר ושתק כמו דג בראיון עם האמא. שאפו לאופירה ולאחראים על האמבוש הכפול. pic.twitter.com/lBW3ds81yq
— Itai Leshem (@Itai_Leshem) August 29, 2025
Alongside his television and print career, Levinson is prolific on Hebrew social media, where he frequently bashes Netanyahu, assails religion, extols Tel Aviv and denigrates other parts of Israel, shares pictures of himself exercising, and complains about dogs.
Haaretz: Concerns rose over articles related to Egypt, Qatar
Levinson was first summoned to Benn for clarification in July, after concerns arose regarding “two articles having to do with Qatar and Egypt” — one that Levinson wrote in April 2023, and another, by another writer, that was published about a year later following a referral from Levinson, Haaretz said.
Asked about the articles in the July meeting, Levinson said he was not remunerated by Einhorn or anyone else for the 2023 article, and that he saw “nothing extraordinary” about the second article, according to Haaretz.
The newspaper did not specify which articles it was referring to. However, the Kan public broadcaster reported that the second article — the one Levinson helped publish but did not write — was an April 2024 opinion piece praising Qatar and criticizing Egypt for their respective roles in the Gaza ceasefire talks.
Kan said the opinion piece bore the anonymous byline, “a former senior defense establishment official.” It said the writer, who it did not name, was a former Mossad official who is also a Qatargate suspect.
According to the outlet, Levinson was first summoned for clarification at Haaretz after Kan reported in April about the allegations against the former official.
Israeli negotiator Nitzan Alon (far left) shakes hands with Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in a photo indicating success in the mediated Israel-Hamas negotiations on a Gaza hostage-ceasefire agreement in Sharm el-Sheikh, in the early hours of October 9, 2025. Second from right with back to camera is US special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. (Telegram / used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
In a response reported by Kan on Thursday, Levinson confirmed that he had passed the opinion piece to Haaretz, and said he did so because it was an “excellent piece” and that his decision to do so had nothing to do with Einhorn.
Levinson, writing on X, also acknowledged working for Perception on Balkan election campaigns, saying Benn had in 2019 agreed to let him do work outside the paper instead of a raise. However, Levinson said he had no idea Einhorn and his company were doing work for Qatar, and said he had criticized the country wherever he saw fit.
“I made a serious mistake for which I want to apologize. I erred in that, although I ended the connection, I did not include a full disclosure,” wrote Levinson. “I have never done any work for Qatar, nor did I know about any connection between Einhorn and them.”
In the Qatargate scandal, Einhorn and Perception are believed to have conducted campaigns in Israel and abroad to boost Qatar’s image, in particular in connection with its role as a mediator in Gaza ceasefire-hostage talks following the Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Perception was allegedly contracted by Qatar through intermediaries, while two suspects — Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein — worked for Perception on public relations campaigns at the same time as serving as senior aides to Netanyahu.
The long-serving premier had, for years until the Hamas attack, overseen the transfer of millions of dollars of cash monthly from Qatar, which hosts Hamas’s leadership, to the terror group’s governing apparatus in Gaza.