Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new pick to lead Israel’s internal security service on Monday, saying that Israeli Vice Adm. (ret.) Eli Sharvit’s past comments about U.S. President Donald Trump were disqualifying.
“While it is undeniably true that America has no better friend than Israel, the appointment of Eli Sharvit to be the new leader of the Shin Bet is beyond problematic,” Graham stated. “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 policies will create unnecessary stress at a critical time.”
“My advice to my Israeli friends is change course and do better vetting,” Graham stated.
Netanyahu announced earlier on Monday that he selected Sharvit, a former head of the Israeli Navy, to be the next director of the Shin Bet security agency.
In an article published in the Israeli publication Calcalist in January, Sharvit attacked Trump’s suggested climate policy as “accelerating the destruction” of the planet.
“I believe that this policy is not only wrong, but dangerous,” he wrote in Hebrew. “Trump’s shortsightedness sends a shocking message to the world of disregard for scientific reality, the well-being of humanity and responsibility to future generations.”
Graham quoted some of those passages in a follow-up post.
“To my friends in the political punditry world in Israel: If you think the over-the-top criticism levied against President Trump’s energy policy by the Shin Bet nominee is no big deal, you have missed a lot,” the senator wrote.
The statement was an unusual intervention from a pro-Israel U.S. political figure over the appointment of a security official in the Jewish state. (JNS sought comment from Graham.)
In 2024, Graham spoke on the Senate floor against Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for calling Netanyahu an “obstacle to peace” and recommending that Israel hold a snap election.
“The majority leader of the United States Senate is calling on the people of Israel to overthrow their government,” Graham said. “Whether you like Bibi or not is not the question. The question is: Is it appropriate for anybody in this body telling another country to take their government down?”
‘Unfit for the position’
Sharvit is at the center of a domestic controversy in Israel about whether Netanyahu has the power to tap him to replace Ronen Bar, who has faced mounting criticism over the Shin Bet’s failure to prevent the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Bar, who assumed the role in 2021, has taken public responsibility for the shortcomings and previously offered to step down.
On March 20, the Israeli Cabinet unanimously approved Netanyahu’s proposal to fire Bar, but his dismissal has been temporarily frozen pending legal challenges before Israel’s High Court of Justice.
Sharvit brings more than 36 years of military experience, including in covert operations against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, to the role.
But the Israeli premier’s decision to nominate Sharvit was widely criticized on Monday by lawmakers from Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and religious parties, including from his ruling Likud Party.
Netanyahu was considering canceling the appointment in response to reports highlighting Sharvit’s political views, which reportedly included opposition to the government’s judicial reform agenda and his support of the gas deal then-Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed in 2022 with Lebanon, per widespread Hebrew media reports on Monday afternoon.
Moshe Saada, a Likud Party lawmaker, told Israel National News on Monday that Sharvit “is deeply embedded in the deep state” and stuck in the pre-Oct. 7 security concept “and is therefore unfit for the position.”
Sharvit also participated in anti-Netanyahu rallies in Tel Aviv and “supported the gas agreement with Hezbollah while Netanyahu opposed it, which reinforces the claim that his approach is flawed,” Saada told Israeli media.
“Mr. Prime Minister, who is whispering in your ear? What is going on here? Are there no outstanding, brave and experienced right-wing people to head the Shin Bet?” Tally Gotliv, a Knesset member from the Likud Party, stated in Hebrew.