Overview
- Israel Police say they hold wartime communications showing Eli Feldstein updating Netanyahu adviser Yonatan Urich with pro-Qatar messaging in real time, a claim both Urich and the prime minister dismissed as false.
- Eli Feldstein told Kan 11 he was directed after October 7 to remove discussion of the prime minister’s responsibility from public discourse and alleged Chief of Staff Tzachi Braverman said he could “shut down” an IDF probe, assertions the PMO and Braverman reject.
- Prosecutors allege Urich and Feldstein worked for a pro-Qatar lobbying effort and maintained contact with a foreign agent while in the Prime Minister’s Office, while Feldstein separately stands trial over an alleged document leak to Bild.
- Earlier WhatsApp messages published in August indicated strategist Yisrael Einhorn drafted pro-Qatar talking points that moved through Feldstein to Urich, and i24 News reported coordination with a Channel 14 journalist to shape coverage.
- Naftali Bennett demanded Netanyahu’s resignation, labeling the affair the most serious treason case in Israel’s history, as other opposition figures urged a formal inquiry and Netanyahu called the broader probe a witch hunt.