Prominent political pollster and strategic analyst Shlomo Filber addressed the expanding investigation into foreign election bribery on Thursday morning, alleging on his X account that Qatar orchestrated an illicit financing effort to influence the outcome of the 26th Knesset elections. “Qatar sought to take over the Knesset,” Filber wrote. “The Shin Bet brought the intelligence, and the Chairman of the Central Elections Committee ordered an immediate investigation.”
1+Filber extended his warning into the parliamentary arena, cautioning opposition factions against using an unverified majority to alter the leadership of the legislative branch prematurely. “Anyone who attempts to ‘take over the Knesset’ and replace the Speaker before the findings on the purity of the elections in the Arab sector are definitively clarified is complicit in Qatar’s attempts to take over the Knesset,” Filber asserted. His remarks address ongoing discussions among center-left factions exploring whether to coordinate with Arab parties—the Joint List and Ra’am—to muster a temporary 61-seat majority to replace Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana before the official certification of results or the swearing-in of a permanent government.
1+Filber’s intervention follows a formal directive from Central Elections Committee Chairman Justice Noam Solberg, who instructed the Shin Bet to investigate serious suspicions of improper foreign influence in the democratic process through illicit overseas funding designed to harm Israeli national interests. According to investigative findings, vast sums originating outside Israel were funneled into the country to stimulate Arab voter turnout. The emergence of the foreign funding track has prompted growing scrutiny over whether illicit financial mobilization explains the surge in turnout and the historic vote tally achieved by Arab factions.
As the Israel Police and the Shin Bet trace financial conduits, cash seizures in the Negev, and border pipelines, Filber’s assessment underscores the high-stakes political clash: whether parliamentary procedures should proceed on interim numbers or pause until security agencies determine the full scope of foreign interference.