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Investigators Probe Funds Linked to Qatar, Former Israeli Officials and Key Qatargate Suspects
- Bar Peleg, Haaretz
- May 10
- 3 min read
Updated: May 14
The latest findings confirm Haaretz's reporting of relations between Netanyahu's aides and figures linked to Qatar, even after Israel's war in Gaza started. Authorities are now trying to follow the money that flowed from Qatar through several companies and into different accounts worldwide
The Qatar affair investigation, which has so far focused on the ties between Netanyahu's advisers Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein and U.S. lobbyist Jay Footlik, has now pivoted in another direction, linking Urich and Netanyahu's close aide, Israel Einhorn, to businessmen with a security background that have Qatari connections.
Developments in the investigation revolve around suspicions that a company owned by one of the suspects, a former Mossad official, maintained relations with Perception, a company owned by Einhorn, which employed Urich.
Investigators from Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority and the police are now trying to trace the trail of cash that flowed from Qatar, through several international companies and into many different accounts worldwide, including the account belonging to Perception.
This channel passed through some employees of a company owned by a former Mossad official, which was formerly hired by Qatar. The suspect's partner is Maj. Gen. (res.) Yoav Mordechai, who is expected to be called in to give testimony on the matter.
In late April, a meeting was held between Israel's Shin Bet Security Service officials and state prosecutors. Israel's State Prosecutor also attended the meeting, in which Shin Bet officials presented evidence obtained from the computers and phones of some of the figures involved in the Qatargate affair. The evidence presented showed that two of the suspects were operated by Qatar's security service through code words they received. This evidence led the Shin Bet officials to participate in the interrogations of the suspects.
The investigation consolidated suspicions that Urich and Einhorn maintained ties with agents connected to Qatar even in 2024, after the war broke out in Gaza, as reported by Haaretz. Messages found on Urich's phone, some of which had been deleted but were reconstructed, confirmed this.
Urich and Einhorn's ties with the other suspects and Qatar started with a campaign waged by Perception to improve Qatar's public reputation before the World Cup Games in 2022, which Haaretz reported on in a series of exposés.
The campaign, which gained the moniker "Lighthouse," continued after the games. Mordechai's partner mentionted the Lighthouse initiative during his interrogation, according to a Channel 12 news report.
Mordechai himself mediated between Perception and figures linked to Qatar. He has also been serving as deputy head of the administration tasked with accomodating the return of the hostages. The company he heads, along with the former Mossad official, deals with innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as with defense and strategic consulting, mainly in the Middle East. It also operates in Qatar.
As Haaretz revealed, Qatar was assisted by Perception in providing consular services to Israelis who attended the World Cup. Senior managers of Perception even assisted the Israeli Foreign Ministry in talks that were defined discrete on at least two occasions.
The original suspicion that led to the criminal investigation was that Footlik, who worked for Qatar, employed Feldstein so that he would echo messages serving the emirate. Further investigation is required in this matter. Footlik's questioning in the U.S., expected to last several days, has not taken place yet. Einhorn, who lives in Serbia, has also not been questioned yet.
The police are expected to question other suspects and confront people involved in the affair with each other. Feldstein is only loosely connected to the main current focus of investigation. On Thursday, a judge rejected a police appeal over the decision to release him from house arrest.
A name common to both strands of the investigation is businessman Gil Birger, who was the conduit passing money from Footlik to Feldstein. The investigation has found that Birger fulfilled a similar role in a deal in which Mordechai's company was involved. In that deal, a foreign company in which Birger was a partner was the "front" in a 2018 deal with another Gulf state, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
(c) 2025, Haaretz
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