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Qatargate Roils a War-Weary Israel
(Illustration by The Free Press, images via Getty)
Qatari money is like fingerprints that appear when an ultraviolet light turns on. Few expected it to turn up in Israel itself.
By Matti Friedman
04.01.25 — Israel
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JERUSALEM — Even those accustomed to the roiling wrestling ring that is Israeli politics can’t remember a week like the last one.

Multiple aides to Israel’s own prime minister, people operating in the most rarefied sanctuary of our leadership and state security, are accused of doing paid side jobs for Qatar, an enemy state. Two have been arrested.

The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has not been urging law enforcement to get to the bottom of the case, as one might expect. Instead, he’s been releasing TikTok videos calling his arrested aides “hostages” and accusing Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, along with the police and legal system, of running a “deep state” conspiracy to bring him down.

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Matti Friedman
Matti Friedman is a Jerusalem-based columnist for The Free Press. He’s the author of four nonfiction books, of which the most recent is Who by Fire: War, Atonement, and the Resurrection of Leonard Cohen.
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