Brig. Gen. (res.) Ofer Winter, a former Givati commander who is part of the Religious Zionist sector, published a Facebook post on Tuesday slamming senior security officials who advanced a failed security concept for years that led to the October 7 massacre but dare oppose the appointment of Maj. Gen. David Zini as the head of the Shin Bet.

Zini, who also belongs to the Religious Zionist sector, is one of the few senior IDF officials who warned of the possibility of an October 7-style incursion prior to October 7, 2023. Nonetheless, a powerful leftist campaign, including senior Shin Bet officials, is being waged against him, with nebulous claims that he has “messianic” views and his “beliefs about the judicial system will harm Israel’s democratic values.”

Winter wrote, “It’s time to stop appointing messianic people to the most senior positions in the country. For three decades, a political-security policy was advanced here by extremist messianists who refused to face reality. They were the ones who sold us Oslo as a vision of peace, and instead we got terror and hundreds of murdered victims in suicide bombings. They were the ones who sold us the vision of two states for two peoples, and instead we got exploding buses and hundreds of so-called ‘victims of peace.’”

“These messianists caused us to flee Lebanon, abandoned our South Lebanon Army allies, and abandoned Lebanon to Hezbollah’s terror army. These messianists told us with nice words that we had to ‘disengage’ from Gaza—but in reality, it was the expulsion of Jews: working people, farmers, the salt of the earth, men of peace—and the abandonment of Gaza to the Hamas terror organization.”

“For years these messianists have explained that we must reach a deal that quiet will be answered with quiet, when in practice it meant disgraceful capitulation to Gaza terror—which is what brought the October 7 massacre upon us.”

“These messianists are the ones who today dare to talk about the danger of appointing a ‘messianic’ head of the Shin Bet, without a drop of humility. David Zini is a courageous soldier and commander who has seen and still sees reality clearly. He has proven time and again through his actions that he is more than worthy to be the head of the Shin Bet. He knows who the enemy is and will never succumb to illusions of false quiet.”

“It’s time to stop labeling people according to irrelevant criteria. Enough. A little more humility. It’s time for a realist to stand at the head of the Shin Bet. For the sake of Am Yisrael. For the future of our children. Together—and only together—we will be victorious.”

At least several other top IDF officials who are not part of the Religious Zionist sector have also attested to Zini’s worthiness for the role. Ynet journalist Yossi Yehoshua published comments by Brig.-Gen. (res.) Moshe (Chico) Tamir, one of the most esteemed officers in the IDF and Zini’s former commander, revealing the truth about Zini and why he faced so many obstacles in the army.

It should be noted that the phenomenon of senior Religious Zionist IDF officers being passed over for senior promotions has been a well-known issue in the IDF for many years.

Tamir highly praised Zini and scoffed at those who called him “messianic,” adding that “Zini is precisely the right person to carry out the mission of rehabilitating the Shin Bet.”

When asked why Zini was not properly promoted in the army, Tamir replied, “It was a political decision against Religious Zionism, stemming from the value-based worldview of the IDF leadership, which was significantly influenced by the left over the years.”

“Religious Zionism suffers from enormous political difficulties, and that is why Zini was sidelined,” Tamir explained. “They failed to promote him properly because the IDF leadership is in conflict with Religious Zionism, and by extension, a large part of the nation.”

“The moment you wear a kippah and you come from his background, you are suspect and it is better not to be in the spotlight,” Tamir asserted. “His influence was enormous and long-lasting in all the positions he held, even if they weren’t at the forefront.”

Tamir, who took part in planning the campaign in Gaza at the start of the war and later also in Lebanon, added, “I commanded him when he was a company commander and I was the Golani Brigade commander. Later, in the Gaza Division, his battalion was my most successful and won a citation. He is an independent thinker and has a backbone. After over 30 years of service, in which he passed every test, including the disengagement, he doesn’t need to prove his loyalty to the state. They’re just afraid of him because he’s a nonconformist.”

Former Central Command chief Maj. Gen. (res.) Roni Numa also voiced his support for Zini. “He is a commander who dealt with ethical and professional dilemmas in the best possible way,” Numa told Ynet. “To paint him as ‘messianic’ is an injustice. Most of the people talking about him simply don’t know him.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)