Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on Feb. 5. Photo by Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images

Columnist Dan Perry April 2, 2025

There’s political chaos, and then there’s what’s happening in Israel.

Faced with an unfolding scandal involving two aides suspected of taking Qatari money to influence Israeli media and policy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t conducting a housecleaning or demanding answers. Instead, he’s doing what President Donald Trump did in his first term, when faced with a probe into allegations of collusion with Russia: claiming “Qatargate” is no more than a politically motivated “witch hunt.”

That phrase, recycled from Trump’s attacks on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Russia allegations, is now a key pillar of Netanyahu’s strategy. It’s part of his broader war against the very institutions tasked with keeping Israeli democracy functioning: the police, prosecutors, the attorney general, the Shin Bet security service, the judiciary, and the media. All, in Netanyahu’s telling, are part of a “deep state” conspiracy to bring down a duly elected leader.

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It’s Trumpism with an Israeli twist — and it’s coming at a particularly dangerous moment.

The  “Qatargate” scandal involves two senior aides, Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, who are under investigation for allegedly taking money from Qatar to push favorable messaging about that country — while working in the prime minister’s office. The goal appeared to be painting Qatar as a benevolent broker in the Gaza hostage negotiations, and to undermine Egypt, with whom Israel has a critical peace treaty and a sensitive border.

The charges the duo face are serious: They include bribery, money laundering, breach of trust, and contact with a foreign agent. Perhaps most alarming is the accusation that Urich presented Qatari messaging as coming from senior Israeli officials. If true, this is not just a matter of corruption. It’s a national security breach that could threaten Israel’s regional posture and credibility.

A responsible leader would have suspended the aides and launched an internal investigation. Netanyahu instead went on camera to say they were being “held hostage” and that the whole affair amounts to “absolutely nothing.” First, he claimed ignorance of any Qatar connection. Then he declared the case baseless. Which is it?

The absurdity compounds given that Netanyahu has lately made a habit of suggesting that Israel’s law enforcement apparatus is orchestrating a leftist coup — hence, the “witch hunt” language. Just in the past few weeks, he’s accused the police of persecution; the Shin Bet of withholding essential intelligence about the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre; the attorney general of conspiring against him; and the judiciary of bias — all while resisting a formal inquiry into government failures leading up to Oct. 7, which the public is howling for.

This isn’t normal governance. It’s institutional sabotage. And it echoes Trump’s first term efforts to oust officials who challenged him, including firing FBI Director James Comey, and trying to replace Jeffrey Rosen, then acting attorney general, with a loyalist who’d back false election fraud claims after the 2020 election.

And, like Trump, Netanyahu is now framing himself as a victim — not of law enforcement, but of a corrupt system that must be “cleaned out.”

At the heart of the matter lies an idea that both men share with other would-be authoritarians: That the executive must be all-powerful, to protect against so-called “elites” impeding “the will of the people.” This is a deeply un-American concept — although Trump is the U.S. president and Netanyahu, who grew up in Philadelphia, the most American of prime ministers.

But Netanyahu is taking things a step further than Trump, and dismantling institutions in wartime. And he’s risking crucial regional relationships while doing so.

Egypt, after all, is Israel’s most significant Arab ally. It was the first regional country to accept Israel, and shares a 200-kilometer border with the Jewish state. Risking that relationship to curry favor with Qatar would be astonishingly short-sighted, and it is a genuine risk: The Egyptian regime led by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is a major enemy of the regional Muslim Brotherhood network of organizations, which Qatar has backed.

There are certainly benefits to Israel developing a closer relationship with Qatar. It’s a U.S. ally that hosts America’s largest air base in the Middle East and plays a central role in negotiations to free the remaining 59 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Plus, Trump is expected to visit Doha soon, potentially seeking to shore up his international credentials.

But developing a closer relationship is the kind of thing that must be done delicately and diplomatically. Instead, the domestic implosion of Israeli governance is colliding with regional and international efforts to stabilize Gaza, prevent escalation with Hezbollah, and manage power rivalries in the Gulf.

It is staggering but not surprising that Netanyahu, faced with this astonishing violation by two close colleagues, has invoked language his American counterpart has freely used to deflect attention from pressing national security concerns. In both the U.S. and Israel, the witch hunt narrative serves the same purpose: to avoid accountability and delegitimize the rule of law.

But in Israel’s case, the stakes are even higher. A government paralyzed by conspiracy theories cannot lead effectively in wartime. A prime minister who sees every investigation as a political attack cannot be trusted to prioritize the national interest. Netanyahu may believe this chaos serves him. But for Israel — a country fighting for both its life and its soul — it is a catastrophe unfolding in slow motion.

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