“The head of the Shin Bet is not just another job that you announce and regret after 24 hours because of a bit of outcry,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid wrote in response to the news that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled the appointment of V. -Adm. (ret) Eli Sharvit to Shin Bet chief on Tuesday morning.
“This is the holiest of holies; it’s a violation of state security,” he added.
Netanyahu stunned the country twice on Monday, first by rolling out the early morning appointment of former naval chief V.-Adm. (ret.) Eli Sharvit as the new head of the Shin Bet and then by having anonymous aides suggest later in the day that the pick might be withdrawn.
Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman joked about the date, saying, “April 1st, International April Fool’s Day,” indicating that the rescission of the appointment was a joke.
National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz said, “Netanyahu proved again this morning that for him, political pressure outweighs the good of the state and its security.”
“Netanyahu has lost the ability to act in the benefit of the national interests,” National Unity’s Gadi Eisenkot said. “We are fighting for the future of our country, to strengthen our security and preserve our democracy, which is why I thought Eli Sharvit was a suitable candidate – I knew he would ensure these principles in these turbulent times.
“Under the pressure of tweets, Netanyahu proved once again that he has submitted to political considerations at the expense of the state’s good,” he added.
“The essence of democracy”
Religious Zionist Party MK Simcha Rothman, however, stood behind Netanyahu’s decision, saying, “The ability of an elected official to reverse a decision that the public dislikes or when their attention is drawn to it is the very essence of democracy.
“Netanyahu presents a candidate, and the public speaks. It makes its voice heard, demanding not just to vote right and get left, but to vote right and get right—fully! And the same people who, just a moment ago, claimed that ‘there is no real democracy in Israel,’ that ‘the public has no influence,’ that ‘there is only one governing authority,’ and that ‘everyone is a submissive servant of the government and the Prime Minister’—all the lies we’ve become accustomed to—suddenly change their talking points.”
A senior Likud official told Maariv that “contrary, to all the hysteria and nonsense that has been said in the past 24 hours, Netanyahu appointed Sharvit knowing his participation in the Kaplan protests, because he prioritized what was best for the state over any other consideration, and state considerations alone were the reason for canceling Sharvit’s appointment.”
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.
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