Jeremy Sharon
Times of Israel, Apr. 3, 2025
“So what laws, then, could Urich and Feldstein have broken?”
The Qatargate affair that has enveloped the Prime Minister’s Office in recent weeks has, in the last two days, roiled the airwaves and scandalized the news pages. Murky details have emerged of pro-Qatar lobbyists, spin doctors in the pay of both the Likud party and, allegedly, Doha, and bank transfers via a third-party international businessman.
Two close aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were arrested Monday on suspicion of a variety of crimes in connection with the scandal, and Netanyahu himself was asked by the police to give testimony over the affair.
This led to the extraordinary sequence of events on Monday in which the premier cut short his testimony in his criminal trial in the Tel Aviv District Court in order to get back to Jerusalem to be questioned by police investigators.
A rush of details regarding the criminal investigation then emerged Tuesday, during a hearing to extend the detention of those two aides and after a gag order over the affair was lifted.
But beyond the drama and spectacle of recent days, what exactly are the suspicions against the key suspects in the case, and what laws might they have violated? ….SOURCE