Bennett: 'Qatar Gate' issue is the most dangerous betrayal in Israel's history - Sarmad

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of a new development in the “Qatar Gate” scandal, describing the case as the most dangerous act of treason in the history of the State of Israel.

After Yonatan Orlich, a close advisor to Netanyahu, admitted to meeting with Ali Al-Duwaikhi, one of the partners of the Emir of Qatar, during the war, Bennett criticized the prime minister in an interview with Maariv newspaper for continuing to support him.

When asked about reports of Orlich’s meetings with Qatari officials and why Netanyahu continued to support him, Bennett questioned what the prime minister knew about his advisor and why he persisted in backing him, asking, “How can one be patriotic and harm one’s army and country?”

He added that he was “born in Haifa, in the Land of Israel, and that his parents immigrated to the Land of Israel driven by Zionism, and that his immense love for this country, its people, and its landscapes, and that he celebrates Independence Day and the flame-lighting ceremonies, and is proud of the Israeli Air Force, Boy Scouts, and the Nobel Prize, and that he is truly struggling to understand how Orlich can be the prime minister’s closest advisor while Benanta is raped and slaughtered, while he receives money and works on behalf of the funders of Hamas’s elite terrorist forces amid this sadistic massacre.”

He emphasized that it was “not just treason, but the most dangerous act of treason in the history of the State of Israel, and that there have been a few other acts of treason here and there, but this is not a low-ranking individual, but someone high up in the intelligence establishment,” adding, “An advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel should have only Israel’s interests in mind… This is not Italy, but an adversarial state, Qatar, the funders of elite terrorists, and this is not during ordinary times but during a war, and Orlich is not just an advisor but actively promotes it, and this story is no longer just about Orlich but about Netanyahu.”

Bennett concluded the interview with a direct call for Netanyahu to resign, saying, “Go back home, step aside, we will take it from here, and we are better at it too.”