Vice Admiral (res.) Eli Sharvit, seen in 2019. (Flash90/Meir Vaknin)
Surprise pick for Shin Bet chief once served as the Commander of the Navy, never worked at the intelligence agency.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his selection of Major General Eli Sharvit as the new head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency on Monday morning.
Sharvit, a surprise pick, was not on the short list of three possible candidates widely reported by Hebrew-language media.
The selection of Sharvit is also unusual because he is not current employed by the Shin Bet, nor did he ever serve in the agency.
A married father of three, Sharvit grew up in the southern city of Beersheba.
Sharvit served as the commander of the Navy between 2016 and 2021, leading “the creation of the maritime defense force in the economic waters” and managing “complex operational systems against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
After retiring from the military after 36 years, Sharvit became the president of a private company in Israel’s defense sector.
Notably, one of Netanyahu’s major political rivals praised his choice.
Opposition MK Gadi Eizenkot, who was once the IDF’s Chief of Staff, said that Sharvit was “a leader and commander with a professional and ethical backbone, who has excelled in all his positions in the IDF.”
He added that “from many years of acquaintance [with Sharvit], I am confident that he will advance the organization according to its mission and will be loyal to the State of Israel.”
In a 2021 interview with Ynet, Sharvit warned that Iran may use unorthodox maritime solutions to evade economic sanctions.
“The Iranian issue becomes complex when the Iranian economic system is under sanctions, and then Iran tries every creative way to transfer money to finance terrorist organizations,” he told the Hebrew-language outlet at the time.
“We need to worry about how to prevent them from using the maritime medium both as an economic route and for transferring weapons,” Sharvit added.
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