Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday named a senior Shin Bet security agency official as the new head of the National Security Council. M. has served in the defense establishment for 30 years, 28 of them with the security agency. His identity cannot be revealed at this time due to the sensitive nature of his role as a Shin Bet sector chief. The appointment is pending the approval of the Public Service Nominations Committee, after which it will be put to a government vote. "This is a very worthy appointment. M. is held in high regard by the prime minister and by the defense establishment," one of the ministers on the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet told Israel Hayom. He said that Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh was also a senior Shin Bet officer prior to his appointment. Another political source said that as part of his duties in recent years, M. has headed intelligence efforts over Hamas' grid of terror tunnels. A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office confirmed that M. had been tapped for the position of National Security Council chief, a role temporarily held by several officials over the past 18 months. The National Security Council in the Prime Minister's Office consolidates and analyzes the intelligence gathered by all branches of the defense establishment for the prime minister, and is also tasked with preparing material for Diplomatic-Security Cabinet meetings. The agency deals with all the sensitive political and security issues in the country, including decisions related to military campaigns; defense spending, such as on the submarine deal or on advanced technologies; and it advises a handful of senior government officials daily on current affairs. Recently, following a conflict between Netanyahu and Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett, the prime minister tasked former National Security Council Director Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror with formulating new workflow protocols for the cabinet. It was decided that a senior National Security Council official would brief each cabinet member personally on relevant issues so they can become more active in cabinet decisions. State Comptroller Yosef Shapira's recent report on the cabinet's decision-making process during Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip in 2014, leveled criticism at the National Security Council's work. The report found that ahead of the decision to launch a ground operation in Gaza, then-Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and IDF Chief Benny Gantz failed to properly brief the cabinet on the gravity of the tunnel threat and the military's difficulties in countering it. "The failure to present the gravity of such a threat constitutes a flaw, as it impaired the essential knowledge base cabinet ministers had to receive in order to make decisions regarding the Gaza sector," the report said. Mossad Director Yossi Cohen was National Security Council chief until 2016, when he was named head of the Israeli intelligence agency. He was temporarily replaced by Maj. Gen (res.) Yaakov Nagel, and in March 2017 Nagel was replaced by Eitan Ben-David, director of the Counterterrorism Bureau in the Prime Minister's Office. Ben-David is also a veteran of the Shin Bet, having served there for 26 years.
PM Netanyahu taps new National Security Council chief
New head is current Shin Bet security agency sector chief whose identity cannot be revealed due to sensitivity of role • He has served in defense establishment for 30 years • Appointment to be approved by Public Service Nominations Committee, government.
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