Former prime minister and B'Yachad party chairman Naftali Bennett sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following a new development in the Qatargate affair, in which Yonatan Urich, a close associate of Netanyahu, admitted to meeting during the war with Ali al-Dawadi, an associate of the emir of Qatar.
Speaking to Miki Levin on Maariv's podcast on Friday morning, Bennett addressed the allegations surrounding Netanyahu's close adviser and criticized the prime minister for continuing to support him. Bennett described the affair as "the most serious act of treason in the history of the State of Israel."
Asked about reports of Urich's meetings with Qatari officials and why Netanyahu continues to back him, Bennett questioned what the prime minister knows about his adviser and why he has maintained his support.
"Do you remember the book All My Sons? It was a story about a factory owner who, for financial gain, sold defective spare parts, and his son later died in a plane crash because of it. It was such a tragedy. It was etched into my memory. How can you be a patriot? How can you harm your own military? Your country?
"I was born in Haifa, in the Land of Israel. My parents immigrated to the Land of Israel out of Zionism. My tremendous love is for this country, its people, and its landscapes. You celebrate Independence Day and the torch-lighting ceremony; you are proud of the Israel Air Force, and you are proud of Waze and the Nobel Prize. I genuinely struggle to understand, and it is difficult for me to say this: How can you be the prime minister's closest adviser, while our daughters are being raped and we are being massacred, and you are receiving money and working for the financiers of Hamas's Nukhba Force terrorists, with this sadistic massacre?" Bennett said, referring to Urich.
"How? How? What a complete loss of moral conscience. What, do you have nothing here?"
'This is the most serious act of treason in the history of the State of Israel'
Levin challenged Bennett's characterization of the affair, arguing that he was reducing it to a matter of values and emotions when it was, in fact, treason.
"I was the first to call it what it is. This is not just treason, Miki, this is the most serious act of treason in the history of the State of Israel. There have been a few other acts of treason here and there, but this is not some low-ranking individual. A lieutenant-colonel in intelligence."
Bennett then offered a hypothetical scenario to explain how he would have handled a similar situation as prime minister.
"If I were prime minister, and I discovered during normal times, not during a war, that one of my advisers was working as a lobbyist for the Italian government, which was paying him to promote its interests, I would throw him out in disgrace. Because you are an adviser to the prime minister of Israel. Only Israel's interests should be before your eyes.
"But this is not Italy. This is an enemy state, Qatar, the financiers of the Nukhba terrorists, and this is not during normal times, it is during a war. And you are not just an adviser; you are actively promoting it. For me, this story has long since stopped being about Urich. It is about Netanyahu. And there is one question that I have also heard quite a few Likud voters ask me, one thing he must do before the elections: Netanyahu must explain what is going on between him and Qatar. What is happening there? Why doesn't he throw Urich out of the Prime Minister's Office? Why doesn't he designate Qatar as an enemy?"
'We'll take it from here'
When Levin asked why he believed Netanyahu continued to support Urich, Bennett said he had never previously suspected the prime minister of compromising Israel's security for financial gain.
"I have never attributed to him an action against Israel's security for financial gain. For example, in the submarine affair, I did not believe he was capable of it, and to this day I do not know.
"But the question right now is: You are embracing a traitor, a traitor, a traitor. What is wrong with you? And I don't know. This is the first time I have said to myself: Wait a minute, what is going on here?" Bennett added.
"And I have a son who is a combat soldier in a commando unit. It is terrifying. And people ask me: You don't trust Netanyahu on security matters? I don't trust him at all. I have lost every shred of trust. Who is he working for? The State of Israel and the people of Israel, or other interests? I don't know. It is shocking, and that is why he simply has to go home already."
Bennett ended the interview with a direct call for Netanyahu to step down.
"Go home, let go. We'll take it from here, and we're better, too."