Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Tuesday he had reversed a decision to appoint a former navy commander as security agency chief following criticism, including from a key US senator.
Netanyahu had announced on Monday his pick of Eli Sharvit to lead the Shin Bet internal security agency, pushing back against a supreme court decision to freeze his government's move to dismiss incumbent director Ronen Bar.
It later emerged that Sharvit had publicly opposed key policies of the Netanyahu government and US President Donald Trump, an important backer of the Israeli leader.
"The prime minister thanked Vice Admiral Sharvit for his willingness to be called to duty but informed him that, after further consideration, he intends to examine other candidates," Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Tuesday.
The abrupt about-turn by the prime minister on the key security appointment drew condemnation from the opposition.
"The head of the Shin Bet is not just another appointment. It's not a job that you announce and regret after 24 hours because of a few screams," said opposition leader Yair Lapid.
"This is the holiest of holies, it's a violation of state security," he said on social media.
Former defence minister Benny Gantz said that Netanyahu again "proved" that "for him, political pressure outweighs the good of the state and its security".
The prime minister announced Bar's dismissal on March 21, citing an "ongoing lack of trust", but the supreme court swiftly suspended the decision until April 8.
The move to dismiss him has sparked daily mass protests in Jerusalem.
On Monday, hours after Sharvit's appointment was announced, reports began surfacing that he had been among tens of thousands of Israelis who took to the streets in 2023 to oppose the Netanyahu government's attempts to reform the judiciary.
Israeli media reports also recalled that Sharvit -- who served in the military for 36 years, five of them as head of the navy -- had supported a 2022 agreement on the maritime border with Lebanon that Netanyahu had opposed.
Feared constitutional crisis
It was also revealed that Sharvit had penned an opinion piece criticising the US president's policies on climate change, prompting staunch Trump ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, to criticise his nomination in a post on X.
"The appointment of Eli Sharvit to be the new leader of the Shin Bet is beyond problematic," Graham wrote on Monday.
"There has never been a better supporter for the State of Israel than President Trump. The statements made by Eli Sharvit about President Trump and his polices will create unnecessary stress at a critical time. My advice to my Israeli friends is change course and do better vetting."
Sharvit's criticism of the US president was published by Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist on January 23 under the headline: "Not just a political mistake: Trump is pushing the Earth to the abyss."
Legal experts told AFP on Monday that Netanyahu had so far not violated any law in his moves to find a replacement for Bar.
But Gantz has said that no decision should be taken on the leadership of the Shin Bet agency until after the supreme court's final decision, to avert a constitutional crisis.
Bar's relationship with the Netanyahu government soured after he blamed the executive for failings that had led to Hamas's October 2023 attack, and following a Shin Bet probe into alleged covert payments from Qatar to some Netanyahu aides.
Israeli police on Monday announced the arrest of two Netanyahu aides, Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, for their alleged involvement in the case local media have dubbed "Qatargate".
Netanyahu testified in the investigation, later Monday denouncing it as a "political witch hunt" aimed at "preventing the dismissal" of Bar.
An Israeli court on Tuesday extended the detention of the two suspects for an additional three days, until Thursday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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