Israeli General Roman Gofman, currently serving as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary, has been approved as the next director of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency. The appointment, announced on Sunday, follows a contentious review by the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee, which split over concerns related to Gofman’s past conduct.
Gofman, a career officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who immigrated to Israel from Belarus at age 14, is seen as a close ally of Netanyahu. The prime minister described him as a “bold and creative” commander capable of unconventional thinking. However, the nomination sparked criticism in Israeli media, with some questioning his suitability for the role of the country’s top spy chief.
The committee’s review focused heavily on the case of Ori Elmakayes, a Jewish Israeli citizen who was 17 years old when he participated in a 2022 information warfare operation run by an IDF unit under Gofman’s command. Elmakayes was later detained for allegedly leaking classified material but was released without charges after it emerged that the documents had been provided to him by a separate IDF unit.
Elmakayes criticized the committee’s findings, calling them “ridiculous” and arguing that a key witness was not interviewed. Writing on social media, he warned that “whoever abandoned a 17-year-old boy – will abandon Mossad agents too.” The committee concluded that Gofman was unaware of Elmakayes’ age at the time and did not know about his arrest until it became public. However, the committee’s chairman, former Supreme Court president Asher Gruni, dissented, expressing doubt about those conclusions and arguing that even if true, they pointed to failures in leadership.
The committee’s approval came after three junior members outvoted Gruni, who opposed the decision. Some documents related to the case were heavily redacted, and Gruni noted that his full dissenting opinion could not be made public due to security restrictions.
Gofman is set to replace outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea, whose five-year term ends in late June. Last month, reports surfaced that Barnea had presented plans to US and Israeli leadership aimed at inciting a public uprising in Iran to coincide with ongoing military operations, though the agency did not ultimately succeed.
The appointment underscores the political and security considerations at play in Israel’s intelligence leadership, with Gofman’s close ties to Netanyahu and his military background likely to shape the agency’s direction in the coming years.
