KATHMANDU, Aug 21: A swirl of money, politics, and covert influence has pulled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle into one of Israel’s most explosive scandals in years.
Several Israeli media, quoting the Kan public broadcaster report, said Qatar funneled an estimated $10 million into Israel over the past two years — much of it reaching Netanyahu’s trusted advisers. At the center of the affair is Perception Media, a firm owned by Yisrael Einhorn, once a campaign adviser to Netanyahu. The company reportedly received $45,000 per month from 2022 until late 2024, when the project abruptly ended.
Investigators allege that nearly half that sum —$18,000 a month — was passed to Netanyahu Spokesman Jonatan Urich, while another longtime aide, Eli Feldstein, pocketed $11,000 monthly through separate arrangements. The rest of the money, police say, trickled into the pockets of former Mossad and defense officials as well as a tech firm, weaving a complex web of foreign payments tied to Doha.
The last days of Netanyahu?
The campaign, investigators believe, was designed to polish Qatar’s image — first in the lead-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Doha and later during the fraught months of the Israel-Hamas war that erupted after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault.
But what appeared to the Israeli public as government messaging was, in fact, a foreign-backed PR blitz crafted by Einhorn and his associates. The quiet shaping of narratives from inside Netanyahu’s office has now set off alarms about the depth of foreign influence in Israel’s political discourse.
Both Urich and Feldstein have since been arrested and interrogated. Einhorn, now living in Serbia, was recently questioned in Belgrade by Israeli investigators after refusing to return home, citing fear of arrest.
The scandal has only widened as the Shin Bet and Israeli police probe possible ties between ex-security officials and Qatari interests. Feldstein, already facing indictment in a separate case over leaking classified material to Germany’s Bild newspaper, is emerging as a central figure in the unfolding affair.
What began as a World Cup-era lobbying effort has now morphed into a high-stakes investigation — one that threatens to leave lasting scars on Israel’s political establishment and its trust in those closest to the prime minister.
