Qatar paid senior Israeli officials, including several top advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a total of some $10 million in recent years to boost the image of the Gulf nation, the Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday evening.
Citing estimates by law enforcement officials involved in the Qatargate probe, the report says that Perception Media — owned by Yisrael Einhorn, a former campaign adviser to Netanyahu — was paid $45,000 per month over two years, from 2022 until the project was scrapped in late 2024.
Some $18,000 per month out of the payment to Perception went to Netanyahu aide Jonatan Urich, the report says.
Separately from the payments to Perception, $11,000 per month went to another Netanyahu aide, Eli Feldstein.
The rest was paid to then-senior defense officials, former Mossad officials and employees of a tech firm, according to Kan.
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The Qatargate affair revolves primarily around suspicions that Urich and Feldstein committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, all while working for the prime minister.
Aides Yisrael Einhorn (left) and Jonatan Urich (center) with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019. (Courtesy/ File)
The investigation continues to expand, and the Shin Bet and police are now probing the involvement and business connections of former security officials with Qatar.
Einhorn and Urich had both spearheaded a pro-Qatari public relations campaign to cast the Gulf state in a positive light ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, hosted in Doha, and reportedly continued their PR work for Qatar well into the Israel-Hamas war that was sparked by the October 7, 2023, onslaught by the Palestinian terror group.
The Israeli public and media were unaware that these pro-Qatar talking points and messages were crafted by Einhorn, who had previously done PR work for Doha, rather than organically by the Prime Minister’s Office, raising concerns about covert foreign influence in public discourse.
Urich and Feldstein have both been arrested and questioned for their suspected role in the case. Einhorn, who resides in Serbia, was recently questioned by Israeli investigators in Belgrade after he refused to come to Israel for fear of arrest upon arrival.
Feldstein is already under indictment in a separate case on charges of transmitting classified information for allegedly having leaked material from a secret document to the German Bild newspaper last year.
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