The battle over the appointment of the next Mossad chief continued on Thursday, with Israel’s High Court delivering a blow to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who is determined to disqualify Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s appointment of Roman Gofman to the position.
The High Court held a hearing on the issue on Tuesday and issued an interim decision ordering the submission of classified protocols and a detailed affidavit from a former senior Military Intelligence official regarding an information-security review on Gofman.
Meanwhile, Baharav-Miara, in her obsessive drive to thwart high-level government appointments, submitted “classified information” to the High Court on Thursday morning concerning information that, according to her, “Gofman should have disclosed himself.”
According to the information, which came from the Mossad’s legal adviser, allegations were raised that Gofman allegedly attempted to influence the continued employment of Brigadier General “G.”, the former head of the Operations Division, at a time when Gofman was expected to become his future superior within the Mossad.
However, the High Court judges ruled on Thursday that the information does not affect their decision regarding Gofman’s appointment.
The ruling is considered a significant blow to Baharav-Miara, who once again attempted to block the appointment but failed to convince the judges of her arguments.
Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal responded to the saga, writing: “The claim of a conflict of interest involving Gofman is a truly disturbing attempt to smear a person.”
“Was Gofman supposed to know through Ruach Hakodesh during the transition process that the High Court would ask G., who currently works at the Mossad, to submit a document on which the fate of the case rests?
“And if we’re already talking about conflicts of interest that the Attorney General is supposedly so worried about, perhaps the court should also have been told that G.’s wife works in the State Attorney’s Office in a senior role.
“If there’s concern about dependency on any side regarding a future appointment, then by the same logic, G. could fear not only Gofman, but also the Attorney General. After all, in the meantime, the one who is not seeing eye to eye is precisely her.
“There is no limit to the distortions and fabrications being used to block an appointment that passed all the required hurdles. Will the ethical, moral, and liberal parties say something about the attempt to thwart a general in the IDF with false accusations? Or is it saving its stateliness for other cases?”
Apart from Baharav-Miara’s false accusations today, a dramatic revelation during the High Court hearing on Tuesday exposed scandalous conduct by the Attorney General’s office, after it emerged that Baharav-Miara had transferred sensitive materials and a written legal opinion directly to the chairman of the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee, retired Justice Asher Grunis, while bypassing the committee’s other members and withholding the information from parties to the petition.
The disclosure sparked outrage among government representatives, who said that the move constituted a severe violation of proper administrative procedure and an attempt to influence the committee chairman’s opinion behind the backs of all involved parties. Justice Daphne Barak-Erez ordered that all classified materials be immediately transferred to the court for review.
Meanwhile, amid the complicated legal proceedings, it was revealed that Gofman — who currently serves as military secretary to Netanyahu — has already begun an intensive transition process at Mossad headquarters.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Gofman has been at Mossad offices “almost every day,” and was even assigned a dedicated office for the purpose.
This process has continued despite the sharply worded letter from current Mossad chief David Barnea, who expressed strong opposition to the appointment.
Prime Minister Netanyahu came out forcefully in defense of the appointment and sharply attacked the legal system and the media, saying: “The one who appoints the Mossad chief is only the prime minister. The Mossad and Shin Bet are directly subordinate to the prime minister by law… not the Attorney General, not the High Court — and not the media.”
Netanyahu questioned the motives of the opponents: “So why are they trying to disqualify him? Because he’s not part of the clique? Because Roman immigrated from the former Soviet Union? Because of political considerations? Because he’s my military secretary?”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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One Response
With all the promotions to make Aliyah how can one contemplate moving there with a renegade & deranged AG plus a kangaroo Supreme Court effectively overthrowing a democratically elected government?