Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed his military secretary, Major General Roman Gofman, as the next head of Mossad, the country’s foreign intelligence agency, despite Gofman’s lack of prior experience in intelligence work. The announcement was made on Thursday, confirming that Gofman will succeed current Mossad chief David Barnea, whose five-year term is set to end in June 2026.
Gofman, 49, was born in Belarus in 1976 and immigrated to Israel at the age of 14. He joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1995 as part of the armored corps and has since pursued a distinguished military career. During the Gaza war that erupted following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Gofman commanded the national infantry training center and was seriously wounded in clashes with militants in Sderot, a city near the Gaza border.
In April 2024, he joined Netanyahu’s office as the prime minister’s military secretary, a role that positioned him close to the political and strategic heart of Israel’s government. Netanyahu’s office cited Gofman’s wartime experience and performance in the role as justification for the appointment, describing him as “an officer of great merit” whose professional capabilities had been “exceptionally demonstrated” during conflict.
Gofman’s appointment follows a pattern under Netanyahu’s administration of selecting agency heads from among loyalists and individuals aligned with nationalist and religious Zionist ideologies. Earlier this year, David Zini, a member of Israel’s religious Zionist movement, was appointed head of Shin Bet, the domestic security agency, despite not having previously served in the organization. Like Zini, Gofman has a background closely tied to the right-wing nationalist community: although he does not practice religious observance, he studied at the Ely yeshiva, a religious school in a settlement in the occupied West Bank known for its right-wing religious Zionist perspective.
While Gofman’s military credentials are widely recognized, some critics have expressed concern over his lack of intelligence experience. Uri Misgav, a columnist for the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz, described Gofman as “unfit to head Mossad” and suggested that his loyalty to Netanyahu was the primary factor behind the appointment.
Mossad is widely regarded as one of the world’s most effective intelligence agencies. Its operations were largely unaffected by the intelligence failures that accompanied Hamas’s surprise attack on October 7, 2023, as the Palestinian territories are traditionally outside Mossad’s operational focus. However, chiefs of Israel’s Shin Bet and Aman (military intelligence) agencies resigned after acknowledging responsibility for the lapses that led to the attack.
Since October 7, Mossad has been credited domestically with maintaining operational effectiveness amid Israel’s multi-front military engagements. Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Gofman underscores the prime minister’s ongoing strategy of placing loyal, politically aligned figures in key security positions while emphasizing wartime performance and trust over traditional career pathways within intelligence agencies.
