--- title: A FARA-registered Qatar lobbyist opened a WhatsApp group with a Netanyahu spokesman so Doha talking points could travel as PMO and security briefings. url: https://propagandaarchive.org/briefs/20260912-0600Z-qatar-footlik-pmo-whatsapp/ description: On 11 September 2026 Haaretz's Gidi Weitz published a reconstruction of a WhatsApp group opened in April 2024 by Jay Footlik, a U.S. businessman… section: Watch briefs --- ![Illustration: a dense, generic Cold War intelligence analyst's evidence wall of press photography, redacted reports and aerial reconnaissance imagery.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-evidence-wall.jpg) [Watch briefs](https://propagandaarchive.org/briefs/) · September 12, 2026 # A FARA-registered Qatar lobbyist opened a WhatsApp group with a Netanyahu spokesman so Doha talking points could travel as PMO and security briefings. - **Filed:** September 12, 2026, 06:00 UTC - **Actor:** Jay Footlik / Thirdcircle, Inc. (FARA 6540, foreign principal Embassy of the State of Qatar), working with Eli Feldstein, Yisrael Einhorn and payment conduit Gil Birger, as reconstructed by Haaretz, Channel 12, i24 and Ynet - **Target:** Israeli journalists and evening-news audiences during Hamas-Israel hostage mediation, plus the Israeli public's ranking of Qatar versus Egypt as broker - **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure - **Confidence:** **high** Multiple independent open sources, low disagreement about the facts - **Techniques:** [Narrative laundering](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/narrative-laundering/) [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/) [Disclosure theater](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/disclosure-theater/) [Manufactured consensus](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/manufactured-consensus/) - **Where:** Israel, Qatar, Egypt, United States - **Channels:** WhatsApp group opened April 2024 by Jay Footlik with Gil Birger and Eli FeldsteinSeparate Einhorn-Feldstein-Urich WhatsApp drafting chain reported by i24, Ynet and HaaretzPitches to Israeli outlets including Kan 11, Channel 12 and Israel HayomFalse attribution to senior U.S. officials and senior Israeli security officialsPayment path Footlik to Birger to Feldstein, purpose disputedU.S. FARA registration 6540 for Thirdcircle, Inc. and the Embassy of the State of Qatar ## Summary On 11 September 2026 Haaretz's Gidi Weitz published a reconstruction of a WhatsApp group opened in April 2024 by Jay Footlik, a U.S. businessman registered under FARA for the Embassy of the State of Qatar through Thirdcircle, Inc. Footlik added Israeli businessman Gil Birger and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's then-spokesman Eli Feldstein. Barak Ravid restated the lead on X the same day. Earlier Channel 12, i24 News, Ynet and Haaretz reporting on the same cluster documented a second chat in which former Netanyahu adviser Yisrael Einhorn drafted copy, Feldstein forwarded it, and Jonatan Urich pitched journalists. Drafts elevated Qatar as hostage mediator, cut Egypt, and attributed lines to unnamed senior U.S. or Israeli security officials. Einhorn labeled the work manufacturing reality in a 2 June 2024 text reported by i24 and Haaretz. Feldstein's lawyers say the Birger payments were for Prime Minister's Office work, not Qatar. Footlik's FARA file remains live through 2026. This brief scores the method, not a verdict on Netanyahu. ## Analysis The load-bearing object this cycle is not a bot farm. It is a cutout chain that turned a registered foreign principal's preference into copy that Israeli viewers could read as a Prime Minister's Office or security briefing. Primary open record splits in two. First, U.S. Justice Department FARA files for Thirdcircle, Inc., registration 6540: Jay Footlik is the director and signatory; the foreign principal is the Embassy of the State of Qatar; the contract was extended through 31 December 2026 in an Exhibit AB received 12 January 2026. Politico Influence in January 2024 separately recorded Footlik meeting Israeli hostage families and Qatari officials while that registration was live. Second, Israeli investigative reporting. On 11 September 2026 Gidi Weitz in Haaretz described a WhatsApp group Footlik opened in April 2024 and populated with Gil Birger and Eli Feldstein, the Prime Minister's spokesman. Barak Ravid restated that lead the same day. Channel 12 had already reported a Footlik-Feldstein-Einhorn group used to coordinate image work for Qatar. i24 News and Haaretz on 23 December 2025 published texts from a parallel chain: Einhorn drafted, Feldstein forwarded, Urich pitched. Ynet in August 2025 described the same handoff. Score those outlets as independent reconstructions of the same cluster, not as a court finding. Feldstein's lawyers say Birger paid him for PMO work after a clearance problem, not for Qatar. Footlik's FARA short form lists U.S. official delegations, not Israeli news desks. Attribution of a signed order from Doha's emir or from Netanyahu is not in the open record used here. Mechanism is laundering plus borrowed authority. A line that serves the foreign principal is written in a private chat, stripped of the lobbyist, and offered to a reporter as what senior Americans or senior Israeli security officials are saying. Card-stacking is the pile that remains: Qatar as the only broker who can move Hamas; Qatari cash as humanitarian; Egypt as the Rafah smuggling problem. Scapegoating is the Egypt cut. Haaretz's 11 September deck used the phrase Go All Out Trashing Egypt; the December 2025 texts include a draft that puts a 20 percent smuggling take on Egypt's Mukhabarat and wealth on senior Egyptian officers, attributed to a senior Israeli security official familiar with the negotiations. Testimonial is that unnamed official, and the unnamed senior U.S. officials in the 8 May and 17 May 2024 drafts. Manufactured-consensus is several desks receiving the same cut as if they had separate sources. Disclosure-theater is the FARA file that exists in Washington and does not travel with the Israeli clip. Einhorn's 2 June 2024 text, as reported by i24 and Haaretz, named the job manufacturing reality. This is propaganda because origin is concealed from the audience that matters, institutional form is a government spokesman and a security briefing, and the design goal is to move who Israelis treat as the legitimate mediator. It is not proof that every hostage story in that window was planted, and it is not proof that Qatar's mediation work was imaginary. A same-method test applies in reverse. An Egyptian-registered agent who paid a spokesman in another capital to feed reporters senior American officials now want Cairo, not Doha, with the FARA page left in a different country, would be this brief with the nouns swapped. Score the method, not the flag, and do not collapse Qatargate into the separate Bild-document leak that shares some of the same names. Literacy counter: if a hostage-talk item cites senior U.S. officials or a senior Israeli security official and the only path you can find is a private chat among a registered foreign agent, a payment conduit and a spokesman, treat the official as a costume. A FARA stamp in Washington does not disclose origin in Tel Aviv. Ask who opened the group before treating the briefing as independent. ## Tells - A hostage-talk briefing that names senior U.S. or Israeli security officials and never produces a named official - The same Qatar-up, Egypt-down cut arriving at more than one Israeli desk in the same news cycle - A FARA file that lists official travel while the operational chat is a private WhatsApp with a spokesman - Payment routed through a friend-of-the-lobbyist rather than a ministry payroll - An operator describing the work as manufacturing reality in the same thread that holds the draft ## Literacy counter If a hostage-talk item cites senior U.S. officials or a senior Israeli security official and the only path you can find is a private chat among a registered foreign agent, a payment conduit and a spokesman, treat the official as a costume. A FARA stamp in Washington does not disclose origin in Tel Aviv. Ask who opened the group before treating the briefing as independent. ## Evidence 1. [Haaretz, Gidi Weitz, 11 September 2026: Footlik WhatsApp group with Birger and Feldstein](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-politics/2026-09-11/ty-article/.premium/inside-netanyahu-aides-whatsapp-group-pushing-qatars-propaganda-campaign/000001a0-8f7e-d9a4-a3a7-9f7ebb030000) 2. [Barak Ravid on X, 11 September 2026, restating the Weitz lead in Hebrew](https://x.com/BarakRavid/status/2098267914592002480) 3. [FARA Exhibit AB, Thirdcircle, Inc. 6540, contract with Embassy of Qatar extended through 2026](https://efile.fara.gov/docs/6540-Exhibit-AB-20260112-10.pdf) 4. [FARA short form, Jay Footlik, 15 May 2024, foreign principal Embassy of the State of Qatar](https://efile.fara.gov/docs/6540-Short-Form-20240515-12.pdf) 5. [Haaretz, 23 December 2025: i24 texts, Einhorn manufacturing-reality line, Egypt and U.S.-official drafts](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-12-23/ty-article/qatargate-suspects-reported-texts-reveal-netanyahu-staffs-influence-operation/0000019b-4abf-d034-ab9b-cabf84c70000) 6. [Times of Israel, 8 August 2025: Ynet WhatsApp chain Einhorn to Feldstein to Urich](https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-pm-aide-crafted-pro-qatar-messages-sent-to-urich-feldstein-to-publish-in-media/) 7. [Times of Israel liveblog: Channel 12 on Footlik-Feldstein-Einhorn WhatsApp coordination](https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/qatari-lobbying-reportedly-used-whatsapp-group-to-coordinate-with-netanyahu-aides/) 8. [Politico Influence, 31 January 2024: Footlik, Thirdcircle, $40,000 monthly Qatar embassy retainer, hostage-family meetings](https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-influence/2024/01/31/advisers-to-families-of-hostages-held-in-gaza-backed-by-qatari-funding-00138925)