By: Akiva Van Koningsveld

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused law enforcement officials of seeking to overthrow his government on Monday, speaking after he testified to police about his office’s alleged dealings with Qatar.

“I understood that there was a political investigation here, but I did not know to what extent,” said Netanyahu after his questioning in his office by Israel Police Deputy Commissioner Shlomo Meshulam regarding the so-called Qatargate affair.

“The police said it would take four hours. After an hour, they finished with the questions,” stated the prime minister. “I said, ‘Show me material, show me something,’ but they had nothing to show.”

On Monday morning, the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 National Unit for International Crimes, together with the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), arrested two individuals in relation to the affair.

The suspects were identified in Hebrew media reports as Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, current and former aides, respectively, to Netanyahu. The probe has been placed under a gag order.

Urich and Feldstein are suspected of contact with a foreign agent, money laundering, bribery, fraud and breach of trust, according to media reports on Monday.

The Qatar probe was reportedly launched in response to allegations that Feldstein, while employed as a spokesperson on military affairs for the prime minister, also worked for a firm seeking to boost Doha’s image.

Feldstein is also suspected of unlawful handling of classified material.

The alleged advocacy on Qatar’s behalf was said to have taken place as Netanyahu was publicly denouncing Doha as a backer of Hamas terror. Netanyahu’s office and Feldstein’s lawyers have denied the accusations.

Netanyahu in his video statement on Monday evening confirmed that Urich and Feldstein were in police custody, charging they were being held “like hostages, making their lives miserable over nothing.”

The two will remain in detention ahead of a court hearing on Tuesday, where police are expected to request that they be kept in custody.

“This is a political witch-hunt aimed solely at one thing—preventing the dismissal of the head of the Shin Bet and bringing about the downfall of a right-wing prime minister,” stated Netanyahu.

The Israeli premier was invited to give open testimony on Monday and was not questioned under caution, meaning he was able to present his account freely without interruption or guidance from police detectives.

Gali Baharav-Miara, Israel’s attorney general, had summoned the prime minister earlier on Monday to testify in the case against his two advisers.

Last month, the ruling Likud Party said Baharav-Miara was “concocting false cases” against the prime minister’s staff, including the Qatar probe.

“As the cases concocted against Prime Minister Netanyahu crumble in court, new and false cases are concocted against his people out of the personal interests of those leading the investigation,” the Likud Party stated, referencing the premier’s ongoing trial on corruption charges.

Baharav-Miara does not work for the Prime Minister’s Office, unlike in the United States, where the attorney general is an agent of the executive branch. The Netanyahu government has often clashed with Baharav-Miara, who was appointed by then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in early 2022.

Qatar, which has hosted Hamas’s leadership and has provided the organization with hundreds of millions of dollars, played a role in mediating the freedom of hostages held by the terrorist group.

Qatar has deflected accusations of playing a double game, saying the United States requested it open the mediation channel with Hamas.

(JNS.org)