Amit Segal: Here's how bad Qatargate might get for Benjamin Netanyahu

Channel 12 reporter and analyst Amit Segal said tonight (Monday) that there are three possible scenarios for the significance of Qatargate for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, from least bad to worst.

The first scenario is the simple one: Eli Feldstein, who served as Prime Minister Netanyahu's effective spokesperson for defense matters even if not formally so, received money from an intermediary with ties to Qatar. In such an instance, the Mossad and the Shin Bet will need to look into how much he received and what the Qataris hoped to get in exchange for that.

The second scenario is more serious: that Yonathan Urich, one of Netanyahu's closest confidants for the past ten years, also received Qatari money. The question would then be how someone within such close proximity to the Prime Minister did so and why.

The third and most explosive possibility is that Netanyahu knew of either the first or second scenario (assuming they are true), in which case he himself may be directly culpable.

Segal says that at present, the police believe either the first or second scenario to be the most plausible ones, though it raises the question of what happened in the last month to lead the police from simply questioning Feldstein and Urich to arresting them both.

For his part, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the police, calling their arrest of his people taking them "hostage," and the Likud party has openly criticized what they call a "politicized" investigation.