Outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea believes that the ties between Prime Minister's Office officials and the Qatari emirate in what has become known as the 'Qatar-Gate' affair did not cause security damage to the State of Israel.
According to a report in Haaretz, Barnea made the remarks during meetings he held with various figures ahead of his retirement from office.
Barnea clarified that he was not addressing the corruption suspicions surrounding the affair, since he is not familiar with the details of the investigation. According to him, the investigation may uncover findings in that regard, but he himself is not involved in the matter.
However, he stated that as head of the Mossad, he did not identify any harm to negotiations for a hostage deal or any other security damage resulting from the work carried out for Qatar by staff members from the Prime Minister’s Office.
His remarks contradict the position of former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who wrote in an affidavit submitted to Israel’s High Court of Justice that the affair raises “the gravest suspicions regarding severe harm to state security, particularly damage to negotiations for the release of hostages, strengthening Hamas, and harming Israel-Egypt relations."
At the center of the affair are Netanyahu associates Yonatan Urich, Israel Einhorn, and Eli Feldstein.
The main suspicion is that the three worked in the service of Qatar while simultaneously serving in the Prime Minister’s Office, with the goal of laundering the emirate’s image as a sponsor of terrorism and portraying it as the exclusive and preferred mediator for a hostage deal, while discrediting the Egyptian mediator in the media.