Report says Netanyahu using supposed Trump ire as pretext to walk back Shin Bet chief appointment

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office is said to have falsely told reporters that the reason the premier is rethinking his decision to appoint Eli Sharvit to head the Shin Bet is because of concern in Donald Trump’s inner circle with a a recent op-ed penned by the former Navy chief criticizing the US president’s environmental policy.

Channel 12 says Netanyahu’s office needed to “invent” a reason to walk away from Sharvit, so that it wouldn’t look like it was doing so due to anger from Netanyahu’s family and right-wing base over the former Navy chief’s participation in a 2023 rally against the government’s efforts to overhaul the judiciary.

Sharvit’s appointment was announced at around midnight in the US and by the time it became morning in Washington, Netanyahu’s office had already leaked to reporters that the move was being reconsidered, making it unlikely that Trump officials were aware of the op-ed Sharvit had penned against the president’s environmental policy.

The network suggests that it was Netanyahu’s aides who reached out to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s office, urging him to tweet against Sharvit’s appointment to bolster the premier’s claim that he is rethinking due to opposition from the Trump administration.