Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a tweet on X on Monday afternoon in which he attacked Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and Blue and White chairman MK Benny Gantz, accusing them of holding meetings, allegedly, with Qatari officials.
However, within seconds Netanyahu deleted the tweet - a move that sparked immediate reactions. Lapid published a screenshot of the deleted tweet and wrote: “Mr. Netanyahu, why did you delete this tweet?"
Minutes later, Netanyahu reposted the tweet - this time without mentioning Gantz’s name, after it became clear that Gantz had not met with Qatari figures.
Responding to Lapid, Netanyahu wrote: “Mr. Lapid, charge your phone. The tweet is live," referring to the fact that in Lapid’s screenshot, his phone battery appeared to be at 7%.
Lapid fired back: “I charged the phone and still haven’t found your explanation for why your advisers received money from a terror-supporting state during wartime."
In the tweet that sparked the storm, Netanyahu wrote: “Channel 14 exposure - in January 2025, Yair Lapid met with families of hostages and with Qatari representatives. The person who helped and coordinated the meeting for them is none other than Potlik, whom we know from the Qatarfake affair."
He added: “So the claim is that Potlik, who arranged the meeting for Lapid and the hostage families, is supposedly the ‘foreign agent’ - the one it was forbidden to meet or work with because that would constitute ‘espionage and treason’? What hypocrisy: the left accuses Yonatan Urich of treason because of his ties to Potlik, while its own leaders had ties with that very same person. The hypocrisy is screaming to the heavens."