The revelations regarding Eli Feldstein, who served at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office as a spokesperson and at the same time was indirectly employed by Qatar, led to a massive public outcry and prompted a police and Security Service investigation. Shomrim obtained the contract between Qatar and Jay Footlik, the American lobbyist who engaged the services of Feldstein. According to it, Footlik was obliged to obtain Doha’s approval for every agreement he entered into with a subcontractor. In other words: If Footlik adhered to the contract he signed, Qatar was asked to approve the engagement of Feldstein.

Footlik previously served as a Special Assistant to the U.S. President Bill Clinton and, in the past few years, has worked as a lobbyist in Washington. He has visited Israel many times and has met with senior government figures in Jerusalem. In 2017, he even appeared at a Knesset committee meeting in his role as a lobbyist.

In March 2019, Footlik’s company – ThirdCircle – signed a contract with the Qatari embassy in the United States. Since then, the contract has been renewed annually, most recently in January 2025. According to the contract, the details of which are being revealed here for the first time, Footlik was hired to help promote Qatari interests in the United States in exchange for a monthly payment of $40,000 – to be paid every quarter. Thus far, Footlik has been paid more than $2.5 million for his services to Qatar. Incidentally, one of those quarterly payments, totaling $120,000, was coincidentally transferred to Footlik on October 7, 2023 – the day of the horrific Hamas attack on Israel.

The contract directly addresses the issue of engaging subcontractors and stipulates that any such engagement – like Footlik’s own contract with Doha – must include a clause agreeing to avoid any conflicts of interest. According to this clause of the contract, Footlik – or anyone he subsequently employs – cannot represent or work with any other Middle Eastern country without the agreement in advance, in writing, of the Qatari embassy in the United States.

Footlik was hired to help promote Qatari interests in the United States in exchange for a monthly payment of $40,000. Thus far, Footlik has been paid more than $2.5 million for his services to Qatar.

At the time that Footlik engaged Feldstein’s services, the latter was serving as a media advisor in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. He had been appointed to the role shortly after the outbreak of the Gaza war and was tasked with managing the PMO’s communications with military correspondents. According to the contract, Footlik was required to report this to the Qatari Embassy in Washington in order to obtain Doha’s approval for the hire. 

Furthermore, the contract obligated Footlik to verify whether any subcontractors he retained were employed by the State of Israel or any other Middle Eastern country—and, if so, to have them sign the agreement’s conflict-of-interest clause. This clause casts a very different light on Footlik’s account, published earlier this week by various Israeli outlets, in which he claimed he had no knowledge of Feldstein’s employment at the PMO.

According to a report on Israel’s Channel 12 News, Footlik told people close to him that he met with Feldstein, made it clear to him that the goal was to improve the public image of Qatar in Israel and, thereafter, he engaged his services without knowing about his connections to the PM's office. “After October 7, Israel had a very negative opinion about the Qataris (…) I asked my friends in Israel to put me in contact with some media advisors, to tell them that the Qataris were trying to help secure the release of the hostages – and I was given a few recommendations,” Footlik told people close to him, according to the report. “They told me that Feldstein had a lot of very good connections and that he used to work for Ben Gvir but had stopped.

“We met (…) and I told him that I want to use him to explain what a massive contribution Qatar was making. He introduced me to several journalists, but the period of employment was short-lived. In October, I woke up to discover that he was allegedly involved in a criminal case. I sent him an email, in which I informed him that I was ending the contract between us.”

Ynet subsequently revealed that Footlik claimed that he never knew that Feldstein worked for the Prime Minister’s Office and that, if he had known, he would never have hired his services. “It’s not my responsibility to call and check,” he told people close to him, according to the Ynet report.

Footlik did not respond to Shomrim’s request for comments on this article.