Netanyahu’s military secretary Roman Gofman approved to serve as next Mossad chief

Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, currently Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary, will begin his five-year term as Mossad director on June 2, says Netanyahu’s office.

Netanyahu signs Gofman’s official appointment letter.

The announcement comes after the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee headed by former Supreme Court president Asher Grunis gave the green light to Gofman.

Most of the committee’s report dealt with an incident that occurred in 2022 while Gofman was commanding the IDF’s 210th “Bashan” Regional Division in the Golan Heights. He approved the use of a 17-year-old, Ori Elmakayes, for an Arabic-language influence campaign against Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, leading to the teen’s prolonged detention by security authorities after he was accused of publishing classified information.

Gofman has claimed he did not know how old the teenager was, adding that he had ordered that only non-classified information be given to him for publication on social media. Elmakayes was held in detention for 18 months before the charges were dropped, after it emerged that classified information he had published on the internet had been fed to him by intelligence officers in the Israel Defense Forces.

In their joint decision, the three junior members of the committee said that the incident should not keep Gofman from serving as the head of the Mossad, while Grunis, in his separate opinion, recommended that Gofman be disqualified.

Born in Belarus, Gofman moved to Israel in 1990 at age 14 with his family. During his military career, he rose through the IDF Armored Corps, becoming a division commander before moving out of combat roles.