Lapid: PM’s naming of next Shin Bet chief is designed to halt Qatargate probes

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid charges that while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s choice of former Navy commander Vice Adm. (res.) Eli Sharvit is an “outstanding officer,” the decision has been made in an attempt to halt criminal probes into the premier’s aides.

“The discussion is not about Major General Sharvit, but about the hasty, panicked, irresponsible procedure designed for only one thing: to stop the Qatargate investigation,” Lapid tells reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

The Shin Bet is currently investigating members of Netanyahu’s circle over alleged ties between them and Doha. This morning, police arrested top Netanyahu aides Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein in connection with the case.

“The announcement of the selection of the new Shin Bet chief is being published on the morning that two of Netanyahu’s closest confidants were arrested. This is an open attempt by Netanyahu to distract us from what is important. This attempt will not succeed,” Lapid states, calling on Sharvit to announce that he will not take office until the investigation is concluded and “as long as the court order blocking the appointment is in effect.”

Current Shin Bet chief Ronen 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.

While Sharvit is “an outstanding officer” and “a decent man,” Lapid says that “his appointment cannot disrupt a security and criminal investigation dealing with the infiltration of Netanyahu’s office by a hostile state, and with payments of large sums of money to the people closest to Netanyahu.”

Despite the vote of confidence from the premier, Sharvit previously participated in protests against his government’s judicial overhaul plans.