Opposition’s Golan says he would boot Zini as Shin Bet chief, sparking row with Gantz

By Sam Sokol 30 September 2025, 12:04 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Leader of the Democrats party Yair Golan at a faction meeting at the Knesset on July 7, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Democrats chairman Yair Golan pledges that if voted into power he will oust David Zini as Shin Bet chief, drawing criticism from fellow opposition party leader Benny Gantz.

Zini, a former general, was nominated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and may be confirmed by the government tonight. The Senior Appointments Advisory Committee approved his candidacy last week, rejecting the claim that Netanyahu was barred from proposing a candidate because the Shin Bet was actively investigating his advisers for their ties to Qatar.

After tweeting that the country’s next government will replace every appointee who “deviates from the democratic path,” Golan confirms to Army Radio that this includes Zini.

Golan says Zini’s candidacy was “tainted by extraneous considerations” and that “the only quality that makes him the one chosen for the position by the prime minister is the belief that he will grant him exemption from investigations in the Qatar affair.”

David Zini at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on August 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Responding to Golan, Blue and White-National Unity party head Benny Gantz tweets that threatening to remove heads of security agencies mimics the behavior of the government they hope to replace.

“How can we say that we’ll establish a different, better government here, and in the same breath threaten the heads of the security organizations and the gatekeepers and behave exactly like what we want to replace, even before we take office,” he writes.

“Yair, like you, I also have very harsh criticism of Zini’s appointment process. But from the moment he is chosen, he will be the head of the Shin Bet” and “under no circumstances should we tarnish him before he takes office.”

“Keep national security out of politics,” Gantz adds.

MK Benny Gantz attends a Health Committee meeting at the Knesset, on July 7, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Hitting back on X, Golan rejects the comparison, saying he is trying to protect democracy “from those who seek to destroy it.”

“When [democracy] is harmed we must not stand idly by,” he writes. “In the State of Israel we believe in, only individuals loyal to the state, the law, security, and democracy will serve in the security services and the civil service. We must scrutinize every appointment and action of this bad government with utmost suspicion, because they do not serve Israel, but only themselves.”