Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday evening that he filed a lawsuit against former Minister Moshe Ya’alon for the latter’s claim that the Prime Minister accepted bribes from Qatar.

“Nothing will prevent me from continuing to make the right decisions for the security of our country,” Netanyahu said in a video message. “The fake campaigns won’t move me. The nation is yawning because they know it’s all fake news and those who fabricate the cases can’t keep pace with the collapse of the cases. [A reference to the collapse of the corruption cases against Netanyahu currently being heard in court.]

“I decided not to remain silent anymore. Today I sued Bogie Ya’alon for the despicable lie he spread that I received something from Qatar. I’ll tell you: I didn’t receive anything from Qatar but I’ll receive [money] from Bogi— and this is just the beginning.”

“Nothing will deter me, not even this extortion campaign against me and my family. It won’t stop me,” Netanyahu concluded.

Netanyahu was referring to an interview Ya’alon held with Kan Reshet Bet, in which he said that “it turns out that three people in the Prime Minister’s Office are suspected of being funded by Qatar. There is intelligence information that has not yet been proven – for this you need an investigation – that the Prime Minister also received $15 million in 2012, and $50 million in 2018 from Qatar. There are documents from Emirati intelligence. Therefore, when Shin Bet chief investigates this, they [Netanyahu] immediately began the process of firing him,” he claimed.

Earlier on Tuesday, an unusual gag order was issued on all the details of the “Qatar-Gate” affair, about two weeks after the Attorney General announced that she is launching a criminal investigation into alleged connections between aides in Netanyahu’s office and Qatar. No accusations have been made against Netanyahu in the case.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)