\u201cThat is my directive,\u201d he said, \u201cthat is your mission, Roman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuing, Netanyahu vowed that \u201cThe Mossad will continue to stand at the forefront of our struggle against Iranian aggression\u2026 In accordance with the consistent policy we have pursued for years, we will not allow the Iranian regime to turn back the clock. We will not allow it to obtain nuclear weapons, and we will not allow it to threaten our existence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t At a ceremony for Barnea the night before, Netanyahu had declared that \u201cthe foundations\u201d of the Iranian regime \u201chave cracked,\u201d leaving it \u201cdoomed to fall.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe price that Iran has already paid is very heavy. The foundations of this regime of terror in Iran have cracked. It will never return to what it once was, and I tell you \u2014 it is doomed to fall,\u201d the premier said, warning that \u201cevery enemy plotting harm against Israel\u201d will pay an \u201cextremely heavy\u201d price.<\/p>\n Gofman, in his own remarks on Tuesday, also addressed Iran and the operations Israel has launched against the Islamic Republic and its proxies in recent years \u2014 the most recent of which was the offensive launched jointly with the US on February 28 and which is currently in a shaky ceasefire, and promised that Israel\u2019s work in that arena was not yet finished.<\/p>\n \u201cThe strategic reversal that we brought about against the Iranian axis\u201d through Israel\u2019s military actions against Tehran and its proxies \u201chas changed the balance of power across the entire region,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the task is not yet complete. The heart of the Mossad lies in covert operations against its targets. We will safeguard that mission at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n Gofman\u2019s entry into the top post in the Mossad means that his prior role of military secretary to the prime minister remains vacant.<\/p>\n Unusually, Netanyahu has not yet announced a successor for Gofman as military secretary, although he was expected to do so soon.<\/p>\n The officer who will take over as military secretary will enter the role without receiving on-the-job training from Gofman, as the latter is likely to be too busy with entering the role of Mossad chief.<\/p>\n There are two main candidates whose names have been brought up as potential successors to Gofman as military secretary: Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, the commander of the IDF\u2019s Gaza Division, and Brig. Gen. Guy Markizeno, the military secretary to the defense minister.<\/p>\n \t Barnea, who attended Gofman\u2019s swearing-in ceremony, wished his successor luck in his new role, and thanked the intelligence agency\u2019s employees for their work in brief remarks.<\/p>\n \u201cYour excellence is tested precisely at the point where others choose to give up,\u201d he said. \u201cYou refuse to give up in the face of challenges. You refuse to back down in the face of a mission.\u201d<\/p>\n Barnea had reportedly opposed<\/a> Gofman\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s ceremony followed a tempestuous legal process centered on a controversial influence campaign carried out by the IDF in 2022, while he was the commander of the 210th \u201cBashan\u201d Regional Division in the Golan Heights.<\/p>\n Gofman approved the use of then 17-year-old blogger Ori Elmakayes to carry out the Arabic-language influence campaign against Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.<\/p>\n Elmakayes was asked to publish information in his Telegram channel by his handler, referred to as Captain Tzur, since it was read by enemy elements inside Syria.<\/p>\n However, Elmakayes was arrested and interrogated by the Shin Bet, and, so he claims, tortured during the process. He was kept in solitary confinement for two months and under different forms of detention for some 18 months until the charges were eventually dropped, after his lawyers belatedly managed to prove that he had been working with the IDF.<\/p>\n An IDF investigation was conducted in May 2022 into the affair, in which Gofman said he had not known Elmakayes\u2019s identity or the specifics of the operation. The investigation resulted in Gofman receiving a disciplinary note in his record on the grounds that he had not received authorization for the operation through Elmakayes\u2019s Telegram channel.<\/p>\n Elmakayes filed a petition against Gofman\u2019s appointment to lead the Mossad on the grounds that he had failed to alert the law enforcement agencies that he had been working in cooperation with the IDF, constituting a major ethical violation leading to Elmakayes\u2019 prolonged legal ordeal. The Movement for Quality Government also filed a petition accusing Gofman of lying to an IDF investigation over the matter, which it said was also a grave ethical violation.<\/p>\n The court ultimately rejected the petitions in a two-to-one decision on Monday, determining that although there were failures with how Gofman handled the incident at the center of the petitions against him, he did not deliberately mislead an investigation into the affair or \u201cabandon\u201d Elmakayes.<\/p>\n Elmakayes said he accepted the court\u2019s decision not to intervene, and that he believed Gofman would act with greater restraint as a result of the legal battle he waged against his appointment.<\/p>\n Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a farewell ceremony for outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea, June 2, 2026 (Kobi Gideon \/ GPO)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/F260205YS10-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tIncoming Mossad director Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman arrives for a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset on February 5, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n
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