The recent arrest of two media aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accused of being paid by Qatar to manipulate its image and tarnish Egypt’s in the media , goes well beyond Israeli political infighting. With its heavy regional ramifications, the case billed by the media as ‘Qatargate’ was initiated by internal security investigations into the office of the prime minister, who faces other cases of corruption in the courts. Though he is not a suspect in the Qatari money-for-influence case, police questioned Netanyahu as well.
Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, two aides to the PM, tried to promote a favourable image of Qatar in the Israeli news media and to foster the idea that Qatar played a more important role than Egypt in diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Court records state that the aides were directed by ThirdCircle, a US-based lobbying group that represents Qatar in various countries, including the United States. ThirdCircle, founded and led by Qatar-lobbyist Jay Footlik, paid Mr Feldstein via an Israeli intermediary — a businessman who works in the Gulf.
Qatar denied the allegation that it tried to undermine Egypt’s position in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations. An official statement from the government in Doha said: “These claims are baseless and serve only those whose agenda is to harm the efforts of mediators and the relationship between Doha and Cairo.”
Yet, despite Israeli infighting between the PM, security services and the judiciary, the case of Qatargate exposes fissures in the Arab stand on developments in Gaza — especially the Trump-Netanyahu plan to expel Palestinians and retake the Strip. Those differences were leaked from Arab meetings in Saudi Arabia and an Arab Summit in Cairo weeks ago.
According to different sources, some Gulf countries were not fully opposed to Trump’s idea of transferring the Palestinian population of Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, while both countries stood firm against the transfer. Even in the ceasefire negotiations, both mediators, Egypt and Qatar, “have not always worked in lockstep”, as the New York Times described put it in a report citing its regional sources. The NYT added that since 2018, Qatar has also sent more than one billion dollars in aid money to Gaza. America “supported the first arrangement and the Israeli government directly requested the second”, and now the opposition is claiming Netanyahu knew this money would help Hamas.
According to different sources, Qatar, which hosted Hamas leaders for years, would not be keen on the idea of stripping the movement of any role in running Gaza, while Egypt is trying to formulate plans for the day after the war acceptable to all parties and involving an interim body running the Strip that doesn’t include Hamas or other factions.
That is why some observers wonder about the timing of Qatargate now, since Israeli security services have known for a long time about the money and influence, even the suspicion that Netanyahu might be consenting to Qatar helping Hamas. Andrew Hammond of Oxford University wonders, talking to Al-Ahram Weekly: “Why would Qatar do that… do they want what the UAE wants or is it to force Hamas to agree to leave. That’s possible. But would Egypt not agree to that? The only reason would be a dispute over the Israeli demand that Hamas leave Gaza. One of them agrees and the other doesn’t.”
Some analysts suggest that the differences over the Gaza war among Arab parties have similar resonance inside Israel. The army and security services accuse the political leadership of no clear goals for the war on Gaza. They think that eliminating Hamas or the resistance is not a practical target, while the PM and his aides want to keep the war going to avoid facing internal political dilemmas.
Though Qatar has never been “an enemy state” to Israel, as Netanyahu himself said after Qatargate broke out, it was also a regular “bogeyman word that is wheeled out every now and then for political reasons” in Israel, as Hammond notes.
Actually, Qatar was among 11 countries that are joining Greece in its “Iniochos” aerial exercise along with the Israeli Air Force. Other participants in last month’s manoeuvres were the United States, France, India, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates.
The most plausible explanation for the case of Qatari money and influence in Israel now is the dispute about the Gaza war, whether inside Israel or in the Gulf and Arab world, as a Gulf-based commentator put it. He told Al-Ahram Weekly that, while Egypt and Jordan stood firm against Trump’s plan, which was favoured by Netanyahu, some in the region would not mind what they call “voluntary evacuation” of Gazans to third countries. It seems this whole saga falls within a set of pressures, mainly on Egypt, to relent on its firm stand against emptying Gaza of its population and the “death” of the Palestinian cause.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 10 April, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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