Netanyahu Picks Former Navy Commander Eli Sharvit to Be Next Head of Shin Bet
Bar has not been formally relieved from his post, with a temporary injunction imposed on his dismissal by the High Court of Justice. While the court froze Bar's firing, it allowed Netanyahu to interview candidates to replace him.
Netanyahu interviewed seven candidates, the PMO said in its announcement. Sharvit's candidacy will now be reviewed by a vetting committee before the decision reaches the cabinet.
Officers in Haifa Naval Base on March 6, 2019 (Meir Vaknin/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to appoint former Navy commander Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit as the next head of the Shin Bet instead of Ronen Bar, whom the cabinet voted to dismiss earlier this month, the Prime Minister's Office announced Monday morning.
Bar has not been formally relieved from his post, with a temporary injunction imposed on his dismissal by the High Court of Justice. While the court froze Bar's firing, it allowed Netanyahu to interview candidates to replace him.
Netanyahu interviewed seven candidates, the PMO said in its announcement. Sharvit's candidacy will now be reviewed by a vetting committee before the decision reaches the cabinet.
The PMO statement about Sharvit's appointment noted that he had led the design of naval capabilities , and that he oversaw complex operations against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.
'The Shin Bet is an organization with much credit to its name,' the PMO said, 'which underwent a severe trauma on October 7.'
Netanyahu, said his office, 'is convinced that Sharvit is the right person to lead the Shin Bet on a path that will continue the organization's glorious tradition.'
Despite the vote of confidence from the premier, Sharvit previously participated in protests against his government's judicial overhaul plans.
According to a report by Ynet in March 2023, Sharvit joined a protest on Tel Aviv's Kaplan Street, alongside other former military officers. He did not issue a call to refuse to show up for duty, as some other reservists did, but only expressed concern over the planned legislation, according to the report.
In 2006, Sharvit was the deputy commander of the Navy's missile boat fleet, and amid the Second Lebanon War that year he commanded one of its squadrons. It is worth recalling that Hezbollah attacked with missiles and hit Sa'ar V warship and Dvora gunboat during that war.
Sharvit's selection comes after the government voted earlier this month to fire Bar, sparking mass protests.
After previously doing so anonymously, Netanyahu on Thursday claimed that Bar knew several hours before Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack that an invasion by the group was likely but did not alert him.
Critics of the prime minister have accused him of seeking to fire Bar due to an ongoing Shin Bet probe of alleged ties between Netanyahu's top aides and Qatar. Bar himself, in a letter to the cabinet this month, said that he issued 'countless warnings to the political echelon' ahead of the October 7 attack, and said Netanyahu's purported reasons for firing him include 'baseless claims, serving only as a cover for entirely different, improper motives.'
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