Mossad Falls Victim to Netanyahu’s Desperation
A scandal-riven former general will run Israel’s leading spy agency, obliterating a tradition of nonpartisan professionals in the job
First it was Shin Bet.
And now the Mossad will soon have a new, partisan head—and that’s not good news for the already fragile and flawed Israeli democracy. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, his military secretary, as the 14th head of the nation’s elite foreign espionage agency is a continuation of his politicization and takeover of the entire intelligence community. It is also an expression of no confidence in the Mossad’s 7,000 employees, among whom Netanyahu did not find anyone worthy of leading the organization.
In that sense, Netanyahu is following in Donald Trump’s footsteps by appointing his own loyalists. But unlike in the United States—where senior appointments have long been tied to personal and partisan considerations—the Israeli tradition is that the heads of the intelligence agencies serve the state rather than its leader, and remain in office even when a prime minister is replaced by a political rival. From 1976 until Trump arrived in Washington, the FBI’s director had a 10-year term as well, and the CIA was led by intelligence professionals. Now they, too, are rank partisans.
Gofman is expected to assume the position in about six months, when the current Mossad chief, David (“Dadi”) Barnea, completes his five-year term.
The new appointment also contains a measure of disrespect toward Barnea, who asked Netanyahu to appoint someone from within the organization and recommended two candidates, whose names cannot be revealed publicly under Israeli law.
This is not the first time an outsider has been appointed to head the Mossad. There have already been five such appointments since 1963. The last outsider was IDF General Meir Dagan, a legendary counterterrorism soldier, who was chosen in 2002 by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to lead the agency. In that case as well, Sharon, too, was accused of promoting a close associate. (Dagan had been his 2001 campaign manager.)
And yet, there is a major difference between then and now. Over the years, the Mossad —like the domestic security service Shin Bet—underwent a gradual transformation from agencies serving the political leadership of the ruling left wing government, which ruled Israel from 1948 to 1977, to national, apolitical institutions.
Israel’s first conservative Likud prime minister, Menachem Begin, contributed greatly to this shift. After his election, in 1977, he kept the intelligence chiefs in office, even though they had been appointed by his predecessors from the rival Labor camp.
Roman Gofman, a tanker by trade who was wounded fighting Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, has no intelligence background whatsoever. Most of his military career was spent in the Armored Corps and in command roles up to the division level. His lack of experience was a serious drawback when he launched a rogue intelligence operation in 2021 that ended in tragedy.
While serving as an IDF division commander on the Golan Heights, Gofman approved an op to run a 17-year-old digital whiz kid, Uri Almakies, as an online combatant in psychological warfare against Syria and Iran. Gofman concealed the unauthorized operation from his superior, the IDF chief of staff. And when it was discovered, the teenager was falsely accused of being a double agent. Gofman denied responsibility and threw his agent under the bus, abandoning him to his own defenses. The teenager was accused of publishing classified information on social media and was held in detention for about a year and a half, until the indictment against him was dropped when it became clear that his operations were approved by Gofman.
After the scandal was exposed, Gofman was asked by an IDF investigative officer to explain himself and denied any culpability. Eventually he settled the case by accepting a mild reprimand. Then, in the old boys tradition of Israel’s senior ranks, instead of being demoted, Gofman was not only promoted to major general, he was dispatched to serve as Netanyahu’s military secretary, making him the prime minister’s key liaison to the IDF and security agencies.
Loyalty Oath
But there was more spilled ink on his copy book, it turned out: In May it was reported that Gofman had been appointed to run the Mossad only after undergoing a loyalty vetting by Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife. Often portrayed as Israel’s Lady Macbeth, the former Sara Ben-Artzi is a political power broker on her own and exerts firm control over her 75-year-old husband. She tells him who to appoint to which position, and not before getting a satisfactory answer to a simple question: Will you be loyal to me? (Tamir Pardo, a former head of Mossad, told me that he was astonished to hear Benjamin Netanyahu ask him that himself during his interview to run the agency in 2010. He replied that he would be loyal to the state and the law.)
For years, the Mossad has become an international brand, one of the boldest intelligence organizations in the world, known for its willingness to be ruthless, unrestrained, and to conduct dirty operations, including the assassinations of terrorists and Iranian nuclear scientists. Because of these characteristics, it has earned widespread fame, fear, global respect, and the close cooperation of friendly intelligence services, especially the CIA.
Poison Chalice
All these achievements may fall victim to Netanyahu’s personal and political interests. He has been standing trial for five years on charges of bribery and breach of trust and is fighting for his political survival ahead of elections coming up in less than a year. Though he has never admitted any wrongdoing, he showed up in court for the first time Monday after the publication of his letter to Israeli President Isaac Herzog asking for a pardon and refusing to express remorse, saying he was confident he would be acquitted.
Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing government have been trying for the last three years, even before the war in Gaza, to change the nature and values of Israel’s stressed democracy. His administration has relentlessly tried to control the official and private media, the judiciary, and the security establishment, and to a certain degree have succeeded.
In February, Netanyahu and his justice minister boycotted the swearing in ceremony for a liberal-leaning supreme court president, saying his appointment was “illegitimate.” In October, despite public outcry, Netanyahu appointed an extreme right wing Jewish settler, General David Zini, to lead Shin Bet, the domestic security service. He also wants to get rid of the IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-General Eyal Zamir, who he nominated with praise just a few months ago, because of his opposition to a full scale occupation of Gaza. And now comes his controversial decision to appoint Gofman, who lacks not only an intelligence background but, judging from the rogue teen cyberwar episode alone, lacks managerial judgment and skills.
Shaky Future
With Gofman’s appointment, the Mossad stands at a crossroads. The question is whether, considering his dubious morality,Gofman will be able to withstand pressure from Netanyahu and his imperious wife, whose interests are personal and political and could steer Israel ever further toward an semi-authoritarian regime resembling Turkey or Hungary, undermining the Mossad’s tradition of impartial professionalism along the way.
Or worse: Two former senior operatives told me they were “concerned” that Gofman “may mobilize the Mossad to serve Netanyahu’s personal and political agendas and may even use dirty tricks and doctor intelligence.”
Given Israel’s current political turbulence, that won’t stay secret for long.