Israel's former intelligence officer says he 'salutes' Qatar for how it infiltrated PM's office
Israeli anti-government demonstrators take part in a protest calling for an end to the war in Gaza and the return of all the hostages held by Hamas, and against what has been dubbed locally as the "Qatargate Affair", outside the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem | AFP
A former senior officer with Israel's internal security agency has said that he "salutes" Qatar for how it managed to infiltrate Israel. Shin Bet senior official Ilan Segev's statement comes as the QatarGate scandal rocks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu's two aides were implicated recently for allegedly accepting money from Doha to promote a positive image of the country in Israel.
"I salute the Qatari intelligence organisations that managed to infiltrate us with an incredible recruitment of two agents," Segev took a sharp jibe at the event in an interview with local radio 103FM.
The PM's longtime media consultant Jonatan Urich and former spokesman Eli Feldstein have been implicated in the scandal which has rocked Israel, especially since Qatar is considered a patron of Hamas.
He accused Urich and Felstein of working directly for Qatar and explained how it worked. "In the recruitment of an agent, there are stages: first, identifying the target, which was the Prime Minister's office," Segev said.
Segev said Qatar then identified the target for recruitment, which was to "establish contact, activation and cover."
"I ask a simple question: out of all of the advisors and lobbyists in the world, how did Qatar happen to find two in the Prime Minister’s office? Can someone explain that to me?" he added.
He stressed the dangers posed by Qatari infiltrators, calling it an enemy state. "Qatar is an enemy state. The strength we witnessed from Hamas on October 7 can only be attributed to one country, and that is Qatar. Anyone who helps my enemy expand in this way is an enemy state."
The court documents state that Urich and an American lobbyist struck a business connection to positively promote Qatar and spread negative messages about Egypt, a claim denied by Qatar.
Doha also issued a statement on Thursday, denying it funded a disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting Egypt’s role in negotiations to free Israelis held hostage in Gaza. “The State of Qatar affirms that these allegations are baseless and serve only the agendas of those who seek to sabotage the mediation efforts and undermine relations between nations,” it added.
Meanwhile, an Israel court has ordered that Urich, would remain in police custody until Monday while Feldstein should indeed be sent to house arrest. Feldstein is also at the heart of another scandal for allegedly leaking a highly classified document — ostensibly detailing Hamas’s priorities and tactics in hostage negotiations — to Germany’s Bild newspaper.
Middle East