Defying AG, PM appoints head of IDF Training Command as next Shin Bet chief

By Emanuel Fabian

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22 May 2025, 9:34 pm

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Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

Maj. Gen. David Zini, head of Training Command and General Staff Corps, attends a handover ceremony at the IDF Central Command headquarters in Jerusalem on July 8, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has appointed Maj. Gen. David Zini as the next Shin Bet chief.

Zini currently serves as the head of the IDF Training Command and General Staff Corps. He has also been responsible for advancing the draft of Haredi soldiers to the military.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office notes that Zini, in March 2023, wrote a report for the then-commander of the Gaza Division “to examine how the division is prepared for a complex surprise event, with an emphasis on a surprise raid, and to identify weaknesses.”

“As part of the report’s conclusions, Zini wrote that in almost any sector, a surprise raid on our forces could be carried out,” the PMO says.

Current Shin Bet head Ronen Bar has said he will step down on June 15.

Just yesterday, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara informed Netanyahu that he is barred from appointing a new Shin Bet chief while she works out the implications of a High Court ruling which stated that a cabinet decision to fire Bar was made “improperly” and that the premier has a conflict of interest due to the ongoing Shin Bet investigations into his close aides.