Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Thursday that if employees in the Prime Minister’s Office had done work on behalf of Qatar, they should be sent to prison for many years, becoming the latest coalition member to support the investigation of the escalating Qatargate scandal.
At a conference organized by the Makor Rishon newspaper, Smotrich said the scandal should be fully probed by the Shin Bet, a day after Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli became the first minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak out in favor of the ongoing investigation.
“If there are corrupt people within the Prime Minister’s Office who, amid a war, worked for Qatar, they need to be pilloried and sit behind bars for many years,” Smotrich said.
However, Smotrich asserted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself has acted throughout the war based only on “relevant considerations.”
If “questionable figures” managed to “infiltrate” the Prime Minister’s Office, “it’s very serious,” Smotrich said.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
“Someone who was working for an enemy state in a time of war — I don’t have words to describe how despicable and serious it is,” Smotrich said.
Eli Feldstein, a former media adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and one of the suspects in the so-called Qatargate investigation, and a defendant in the Bild leak scandal, speaks to the Kan public broadcaster in an interview aired December 23, 2025. (Screenshot: Kan)
The minister said that during the two years of the war, he did not meet with Eli Feldstein, a central suspect in the Qatargate affair.
Feldstein and top Netanyahu adviser Jonathan Urich are alleged to have worked — while they were in Netanyahu’s employ — on behalf of Qatar for the Perception PR firm headed by Yisrael Einhorn, Netanyahu’s former campaign manager, in the scandal known as Qatargate.
Einhorn and Perception are believed to have conducted campaigns in Israel and abroad to boost Qatar’s image, particularly in connection with its role as a mediator in hostage talks.
Feldstein alleged during a lengthy interview with the Kan public broadcaster this week that Netanyahu was behind the leak of classified intelligence to the German daily Bild to sway Israeli public opinion regarding ongoing hostage negotiations last year. Feldstein was indicted in the Bild leak scandal last year.
He also said Netanyahu’s chief of staff Tzachi Braverman got wind of the secret investigation into Feldstein’s leak to Bild months before it was publicized, and assured Feldstein that he’d be able to quash the probe, as well as stop an investigation regarding IDF information security if Feldstein needed it.
Asked if it was a problem if Netanyahu didn’t know about the scandal, Smotrich said on Thursday, “it’s a problem,” but said he couldn’t determine its scope.
He repeated that Netanyahu acted only “with a higher purpose, 100% only with relevant considerations, 100% for the good of the State of Israel and its security and future and existence.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at an Israeli Air Force pilots’ graduation ceremony at the Hatzerim Airbase, December 24, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Both the Prime Minister’s Office and Braverman have denied Feldstein’s allegations and accused him of lying. Netanyahu has also dismissed the allegations against Urich.
While many opposition figures have long supported the ongoing investigation into the scandals, the past two days have seen Chikli and Likud MK Eli Dallal join the chorus of voices backing the probe.
Lapid: Shin Bet deputy head’s resignation could scuttle Qatargate probe
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said on Thursday the recent resignation of the deputy head of the Shin Bet “raises concerns” that the person appointed in his place will shut down the investigation into Qatargate.
The deputy director of the Shin Bet resigned from the security agency after some 30 years of service, less than three months after the agency’s new director, David Zini, stepped into the role and amid reports of serious and frequent differences of opinion between Zini and the deputy, identified only by his first initial in Hebrew, Shin.
Lapid added that when Zini was appointed to lead the agency, Netanyahu “pledged that Zini would not involve himself in the Qatargate affair. The High Court of Justice has made this a binding order.”
“[Shin] should manage this investigation until his retirement and then appoint someone to replace him without interference from [Zini] or Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office,” the opposition leader said.
MK Yair Lapid speaks at the Knesset on December 24, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Zini, a former IDF general seen as a Netanyahu loyalist, was nominated by the prime minister to lead the agency in May, in part due to the controversial ouster of former chief Ronen Bar. Bar was investigating the Qatargate scandal, which the prime minister has dismissed as a “witch hunt.”
Liberman: Mossad working to repair Qatar’s image
Amid the ongoing Qatargate scandal, Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman took aim at the Mossad spy agency, alleging that it has been working in secret to rehabilitate Qatar’s image.
In comments at the Ogen Conference organized by Yedioth Ahronoth, Liberman that Mossad chief David Barnea “held a meeting about a month ago with the Qataris in New York.”
In that meeting, Liberman claimed, “they decided to establish four ‘working committees,’ including a committee focused on the issue of media and the Qataris’ image.”
The meeting, hosted by by the US, was ostensibly held to patch up ties between Israel and Qatar after the botched Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Doha.
In a statement attributed to the Mossad cited in Hebrew media outlets, the agency flatly denied the assertion, calling it “unfounded, false and devoid of any basis.”
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman addresses the Knesset, December 24, 2025. (Noam Moskowitz, Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)
Liberman, a former defense minister, asserted that Israel has “returned to October 6 — the same formula, the same Qatari intermediaries, and Hamas only grows stronger.”
The Mossad statement asserted that Barnea did meet in New York with Qatari officials as well as US special envoy Steve Witkoff, and “dealt with a series of significant issues related to the Middle East and the Gaza Strip, including senior Hamas figures hosted by Qatar.”
The only issue related to the media that arose in the meeting, the agency asserted, was a demand that Qatar act against the Al Jazeera network, “which incites hatred, antisemitism, and terrorism.”
You appreciate our journalism
You clearly find our careful reporting valuable, in a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.
Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically since October 7.
So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you’ll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel