Four former left-wing Shin Bet chiefs are leading a campaign against the appointment of Maj. Gen. David Zini as head of the Shin Bet amid a broader campaign by Haaretz and other leftist entities.

Channel 12 News reported that Nadav Argaman, Ami Ayalon, Yoram Cohen, and Carmi Gillon submitted objections to the Gronis Committee regarding Zini’s appointment.

This comes after 260 former Shin Bet employees sent a letter to the committee on Tuesday with the absurd claim that “Zini’s beliefs about the judicial system will harm the balance between Israel’s security needs and Jerusalem’s democratic values.”

In contrast, Brig. Gen. (res.) Ofer Winter also approached the Gronis Committee, expressing support for Zini. He wrote to committee members that Zini is a “principled, professional officer, a man of spotless character, a Zionist, and as straight as an arrow.”

Yehuda Wald, CEO of the Religious Zionism Party, responded on his X account to the former Shin Bet chiefs’ move: “They would have done this even if it wasn’t David Zini. Even if it were Ofer Winter, Avi Bluth, or Dado Bar-Kalifa, or any other officer wearing a knitted kippah, raised in the national-religious education system, a member of Bnei Akiva, who puts on tefillin and kisses a mezuzah, whose father was a rabbi, and whose children study in a pre-army academy in Eli or in a Hesder yeshiva.

“Anyone who doesn’t come from their so-called enlightened camp is, in their view, a threat and a danger to the state they think belongs only to them. We must not allow this dark minority to win.”

Over the years, the leadership of the Shin Bet has become increasingly leftist, with officials worrying more about Jewish terrorism than Palestinian terrorism.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu submitted Zini’s name to the Advisory Committee for Senior Appointments, headed by former Supreme Court President Asher Gronis. The committee is tasked with reviewing integrity and ethical standards for the highest-ranking positions in the public service, including the IDF Chief of Staff, Police Commissioner, and chiefs of the Mossad and Shin Bet.

The leftist campaign against Zini is nothing new. Prior to the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who failed to prevent the October 7 massacre, the leftists launched an unprecedented scare campaign against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in an attempt to deter him from firing him.

Beyond the usual threats from political elements, former senior figures in the security establishment, many of whom are leftists, made statements insinuating that Bar’s dismissal could lead to the exposure of sensitive and personal information about Netanyahu and his family.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)