{"id":789232,"date":"2026-05-11T17:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/789232\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T17:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:42:13","slug":"benjamin-netanyahu-reprimands-barnea-after-letter-opposing-gofmans-mossad-appointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/789232\/","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Netanyahu reprimands Barnea after letter opposing Gofman\u2019s Mossad appointment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outgoing Mossad Director David Barnea<\/a> was reprimanded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> on Sunday after he sent a confidential letter to Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, denouncing the appointment of Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman as his replacement.<\/p>\n

According to reports, Netanyahu claims that Barnea “exceeded his authority” by sending the letter, which was part of his testimony against Gofman’s appointment at the Grunis Committee<\/a> hearings.<\/p>\n

Barnea, however, argued that these were essentially the same words he had already said in other instances, and he sent them to the attorney-general so that his official position could be presented before the judges.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu responded in an official statement, saying that “The one who appoints the head of the Mossad is only the Prime Minister.”<\/p>\n

“The Mossad and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) are directly subordinate to the prime minister by law. The prime minister is the one who appoints their directors – not the attorney-general, not the High Court of Justice, and not the media,” Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounces Mossad Director David Barnea speaking out about the appointment of his successor Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, May 10, 2026. (credit: OMER MIRON\/GPO, NIR SHARF\/GPO)<\/p>\n

“Gofman is a heroic fighter. He is strong-willed, one of the most highly regarded operational commanders in the IDF,” he added.<\/p>\n

Gofman provided exceptional leadership during war over past years, Netanyahu says<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the war, including operations Rising Lion and Roaring Lion, he “provided exceptional leadership” and “displayed out-of-the-box thinking,” Netanyahu said of Gofman.<\/p>\n

Gofman has “courage, initiative, determination, and above all, independent thinking and supreme responsibility for Israel’s security. People like him should be at the head of the Mossad, and that is why I chose him,” he added.<\/p>\n

“So why are we trying to disqualify him? Because he’s not part of the clique? Because he came from the Soviet Union? Because of political considerations? Because he is my military secretary?” Netanyahu asked.<\/p>\n

“Gofman was chosen by the prime minister to be the next head of Mossad, and he will lead Mossad from strength to strength,” he concluded.<\/p>\n

This follows Baharav-Miara’s submission<\/a> to the High Court of Justice against the appointment of Gofman as Mossad director. In her submission, she claimed that in the case of Ori Elmakayes, serious flaws were found in Gofman’s integrity.<\/p>\n

According to Baharav-Miara, the decision to appoint Gofman to the most senior security position “cannot stand legally.”<\/p>\n

According to Baharav-Miara’s position, Elmakayes’s case “casts a heavy shadow on Gofman’s integrity and therefore on his appointment as the head of the Mossad.”<\/p>\n

She claimed that the examination process conducted by the senior appointments committee was flawed, and the majority decision approving the appointment was based on an incomplete and insufficient factual foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outgoing Mossad Director David Barnea was reprimanded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday after he sent a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":789233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49772,372,14965,42922,99,2052,50,198134],"class_list":{"0":"post-789232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-attorney-general","9":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","10":"tag-david-barnea","11":"tag-gali-baharav-miara","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-mossad","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-roman-gofman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116557182077557181","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}