Israel’s New Top Spy is a Former Rules-Breaking Army General

The Russian-born military adviser to Netanyahu was reprimanded for hiring a teen in a rogue intelligence operation

Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman is certainly not cut from the mold of many a head of the Mossad, Israel’s legendary spying, assassinations and dirty tricks service.

The agency’s 14th head since the country’s establishment in 1948 isn’t expected to assume his post for another two months. But his appointment by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is already stirring unease—with implications for Israel’s relations with its closest ally, America.

For starters, Gofman is widely regarded as the most controversial, politicized, and inexperienced candidate ever chosen to head the Mossad, a man whose grasp of strategic special operations and international relations appears limited. These are not peripheral skills, of course.