Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed on Monday that he alone gets to pick the next chief of the Mossad spy agency, insinuating that bigotry and elitism are behind opposition to Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman’s appointment for the role.

“Only the prime minister appoints the head of the Mossad,” Netanyahu said in a strident video statement. “The Mossad and the Shin Bet are directly subordinate to the prime minister by law — not the attorney general, not the High Court and not the media.”

Netanyahu’s statement comes amid a High Court hearing about petitions against Gofman’s nomination, which argue that he acted improperly during a 2022 incident while he was serving as an IDF division commander, and is unfit to hold the job.

Gofman, said Netanyahu on Monday, “is a heroic fighter. He is courageous and one of the most highly regarded operational commanders in the IDF.”

He said that Gofman has demonstrated “exceptional leadership” and “out-of-the-box thinking” in Israel’s recent wars.

“He has courage, initiative, determination, and cunning,” said Netanyahu. “But above all, he has independent thinking and supreme responsibility for Israel’s security.”

“Why are they trying to disqualify him?” Netanyahu continued. “Because he’s not part of the clique? Because Roman immigrated from the Soviet Union? Because of political considerations? Because he is my military secretary?”

Gofman, he asserted, will be the next leader of the spy agency.

The statement from Netanyahu came shortly after Channel 13 news reported that the prime minister held a heated conversation Sunday with David Barnea over a letter the outgoing Mossad chief sent to the attorney general expressing opposition to Gofman’s appointment.

According to the Monday report, Netanyahu demanded to receive a copy of the letter that Barnea wrote to the attorney general on the issue.

The network also reported that Barnea testified against Gofman’s appointment to the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee chaired by former........

© The Times of Israel