00:01We're going to focus on a report from the news outlet Politico now, which is claiming that the White House wrote Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent apology to Qatar over Israeli strikes in the country,
00:12and that a senior Qatari envoy was present in the Oval Office to ensure Netanyahu followed the prepared script.
00:19Well, the Prime Minister's office has dismissed the story as false, asserting that Netanyahu's remarks were his own.
00:26Well, let's get more on this story. France 24's correspondent in Jerusalem, Noga Tanopolsky, joins us now.
00:32Noga, just bring us up to speed with what Politico is claiming here exactly.
00:39Politico is confirming, based on three sources who were in this Oval Office encounter, something that has been suspected for a number of days.
00:52First of all, because of the forced nature of Prime Minister Netanyahu's appearance before the media with President Trump,
01:02and because of the also awkward announcement subsequent to that meeting that the Prime Minister had apologized to Qatar for the Israeli strike launched last month.
01:14This was not announced by Israel.
01:16Eventually, the Israeli Prime Minister's office did say that he had expressed regrets.
01:20The entire event was very awkward.
01:24And then the White House released images of said apology, which showed Prime Minister Netanyahu sitting in an armchair next to the president,
01:33reading from what looked like a script.
01:35So ever since then, journalists have been trying to find out what actually went down in that White House meeting.
01:41Today, Politico reports that, in fact, Prime Minister Netanyahu read a text that was dictated to him by two foreign nations,
01:51that it was created by the United States and by Qatar.
01:54And that, I would say, a strong man, a fixer, very close to the Qatari Prime Minister, who was hearing this apology from Benjamin Netanyahu,
02:06was sat in the room so as to supervise and make sure Netanyahu did not stray from the text.
02:11This is obviously an extremely severe accusation.
02:16And the Prime Minister's denial today doesn't seem entirely convincing.
02:21What he said is that, in fact, he wrote his own words in, quote,
02:23in consultation with his professional staff.
02:26What we know is that Netanyahu has extremely complex relations with Qatar.
02:33Netanyahu is the Israeli Prime Minister who concocted a years-long scheme
02:38through which Qatar transferred about a billion dollars to Hamas in Gaza.
02:45And this was so as to support Prime Minister Netanyahu's efforts to prevent there being unity
02:51among different Palestinian factions and to strengthen Hamas as against the Palestinian authority in Ramallah.
02:58We also know, shockingly, that even after the Hamas attack, 2023 attack against Israel,
03:06his top staff have been found to have been on the Qatari payroll.
03:12Specifically, Yonatan Urich, one of Netanyahu's top aides,
03:16does not deny having received a very significant amount of money from Qatar
03:22to apparently handle Qatar's PR while he was an employee of Prime Minister Netanyahu during this war.
03:31When Netanyahu was forced to testify in this case,
03:36which obviously comes very close to a treason case,
03:39Netanyahu said that Qatar is not an enemy state,
03:42so even if his aide did it, it didn't matter.
03:45But a few weeks later, when he ordered this attack against Hamas leadership in the Qatari capital of Doha,
03:53he did refer to Qatar as an enemy,
03:56and he launched that strike against the advice of the army.
04:00So we don't know everything there is to know.
04:04But today we apparently got a new piece of the puzzle
04:07that appears to show that Prime Minister Netanyahu is at the very least susceptible to American pressure
04:14and possibly Qatari pressure based on the unknown and complex nature of his ties with Qatar.
04:21Noga, thank you so much for bringing us up to speed.
04:24Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:27Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:28Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:30Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:32Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:34Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:36Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:37Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:38Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:39Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:40Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:41Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:42Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
04:44Noga Tanopolsky reporting there, live from Jerusalem.
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