Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accredited Army Secretary Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman as the subsequent head of the Mossad.
The approval got here after the vetting committee of former Supreme Court docket chief justice Asher Grunis accredited Gofman, following months of delay attributable to sure prior controversies.
Gofman will substitute David Barnea because the nation’s prime spy chief on June 2, after Barnea completes his five-year time period, which began in 2021.
In December, The Jerusalem Submit reported that there are numerous forces stacked in opposition to Gofman, however that there are additionally some robust winds in his sails.
From the Submit’s interactions with him as an IDF officer and delving deeper into sources who know him, Barnea is extra formidable than many notice. Gofman, who’s 49 and moved to Israel from Belarus on the age of 14, was by no means speculated to be the chief of the Mossad.
Had he not been appointed, he could or could not have moved on from being Netanyahu’s army secretary to another IDF Basic Workers function, relying on his relations with IDF Chief of Workers Lt-Gen. Eyal Zamir.
Zamir could have been suspicious of Gofman, as IDF chiefs typically are of a major minister’s army secretary, when it comes to how loyal they’re to the protection or political institution, and moved him to a non-promotion monitor.
Nonetheless, army secretaries are sometimes later promoted to extra senior roles in circumstances the place an IDF chief receives the prime minister’s assist on one other situation in return for enabling the promotion.
However all that is now irrelevant, as Gofman can be leaping as much as head a worldwide spy service juggernaut, which can primarily make him Zamir’s equal.
By the way, the Submit understands that Gofman has Zamir’s full assist, who – no matter his relationship with Gofman whereas he labored for Netanyahu – displays fondly on working with him in sure prior army roles.
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