Israeli Minister Chikli calls ‘Qatargate’ shocking, urges full investigation

Israel's Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli addressed the recent reports about the Qatargate affair this Wednesday morning in an interview on Kan Reshet Bet Radio, becoming the first minister to publicly condemn the affair.

“I have no way to defend this. It looks shocking – shocking, no less,” Minister Chikli said, adding that he views Qatar as “a pariah enemy state,” and that he “thinks it is a crime to work with them. These matters must be thoroughly investigated.”

The minister said that based on information available to the public, “it looks very bad. The investigation presented by [journalist] Avishai Greenzeig suggests there is allegedly activity here intended to benefit the Qataris.”

Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid also addressed developments in the affair and Feldstein’s remarks in an interview on Kan Reshet Bet Radio. Lapid referred to the case as “the most serious security affair in the country’s history,” claiming it is a case that “verges on treason.”

Regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s involvement, Lapid said, “I don’t know if this reaches the prime minister, but someone needs to investigate it.”

Lapid added that the involvement of [Netanyahu aide] Tzachi Braverman should also be investigated before he travels to take up the post of Israel’s ambassador in London: “Someone needs to make sure he is not involved in the affair, as suggested by the publications,” referring to the first part of Eli Feldstein’s recent interview on Kan.

Addressing attempts by the Likud Central Committee to distance itself from Einhorn and Feldstein, the Yesh Atid chairman said, “Anyone who has been to the Prime Minister’s Office knows they were always there. These are the guys – these are the people who run the operation. Urich is the person closest to Netanyahu, period. Are you now pretending you don’t know who they are? This sense that everything is shaken and everything is rotten is a dangerous feeling – people say, ‘If it’s allowed for the government, why is it forbidden for me?’ It corrupts the state.”

The former prime minister sought to clarify: “It’s not like that, and it must not be like that. Not everyone is corrupt. We did not leak classified documents to foreign newspapers to influence public opinion at home. There are upright people in the world – upright politicians, people in this business for the good of the state and only for the good of the state.”

On Monday, the first part of Eli Feldstein’s three-part interview was published. In it, he described a late-night meeting between himself and Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, in an underground parking lot at the [IDF headquarters].

“Braverman called me in a frenzy on Saturday night,” Feldstein recounted. “We met on level minus four. He got into my car, took out a note with the names of IDF officers, and asked if I knew them.”

“He told me, ‘There is an investigation by MALMAB (the unit responsible for security in the defense establishment); it reaches all the way to the Prime Minister’s Office,’” Feldstein continued.

“Tell me if it’s connected to you, tell me if it’s connected to us. I can shut it down.” According to Feldstein, the meaning of Braverman’s words was clear – an attempt to halt a sensitive security investigation before it could develop.