Brigadier General (res.) Ofer Winter on Tuesday issued a sharp defense of Major General David Zini, the Religious Zionist officer nominated to become head of the Shin Bet (Israel’s Internal Security Agency), while turning his criticism squarely against those in Israel’s security and political establishment who oppose him.
Zini, who has been attacked by some in the defense establishment as “messianic” due to his religious worldview, is among the few senior IDF officers who repeatedly warned of the possibility of an October 7-style invasion before the Hamas massacre. Winter noted the irony in these criticisms, arguing that the true “messianics” were not Zini and other Religious Zionist officers, but the left-wing architects of Israel’s failed peace policies.
“For three decades, a political-security policy has been promoted here by extremist messianics who refused to look reality in the eye,” Winter wrote in a Facebook post. “They sold us Oslo as a vision of peace, and instead we got terrorism and hundreds murdered in suicide bombings. They sold us the vision of two states for two peoples, and we got exploding buses and hundreds of so-called ‘victims of peace.’”
Winter, a decorated combat commander forced into early retirement after the 2014 Gaza war for speaking openly about faith and battle, accused the leftist establishment of abandoning allies in Lebanon, empowering Hezbollah, expelling Jews from Gaza, and ultimately paving the way for Hamas’s October 7 massacre. “The messianics told us that quiet would be answered with quiet,” he charged, “but in reality it was disgraceful capitulation to Gaza terrorism, which is what brought us the atrocities of October 7.”
Winter then praised Zini as a commander “who always sees reality as it is,” insisting he is more than qualified to lead the Shin Bet. “He knows who the enemy is and will never fall for illusions of false quiet,” Winter wrote. “It’s time for a realist to head the Shin Bet—for the sake of the people of Israel, for the future of our children.”
Winter’s comments highlight the broader failure of Israel’s decades-long experiment with the “land for peace” formula, first enshrined in the Oslo Accords of the 1990s. Its left-wing, typically secular/anti-religious advocates presented Oslo as a historic breakthrough: Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn, with promises of coexistence, economic prosperity, and the gradual birth of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
But for most Israelis, the reality of Oslo was not peace but bloodshed. Hamas and Islamic Jihad unleashed a wave of suicide bombings in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, and elsewhere. Between 1993 and the early 2000s, more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered in terror attacks carried out by Palestinian factions emboldened by Israel’s territorial concessions. Israelis still recall the burned-out buses on Dizengoff Street, the carnage at Sbarro Pizza, and the massacre at Dolphinarium as the true legacy of Oslo.
The so-called “peace process” culminated in the Second Intifada (2000–2005), when Palestinian terror groups launched a coordinated campaign of shootings, stabbings, and bombings that claimed the lives of over 1,000 Israelis and left thousands more injured. Instead of yielding peace, Oslo created a heavily armed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and entrenched terror enclaves in Gaza.
The forcible expulsion of Jews from Gaza in 2005, justified by its architects as a continuation of Oslo’s vision, only deepened the failure. Israel uprooted 21 thriving Jewish communities and withdrew from Gaza entirely. Within two years, Hamas seized control of the Strip, transforming it into a fortified terror base from which thousands of rockets and, ultimately, the October 7 massacre, were launched.
Zini’s appointment as head of the Shin Bet brings into question the future of the agency’s “Jewish Division,” which operates against right-wing elements in Israeli society. The agency has been accused of indefinitely detaining religious settlers, often minors, and torturing them.
Winter’s statement comes amid a more profound reckoning in Israeli society with the policies that guided the country since Oslo. Many Israelis now see the “land for peace” doctrine as a dangerous illusion that weakened Israel’s security while strengthening its enemies.
Against this backdrop, the debate over Zini’s appointment to head the Shin Bet is not simply about one man’s religious beliefs—it is about whether Israel will continue to be guided by the failed doctrines of the past, or by leaders willing to confront hard realities. Winter’s warning is stark: those who deride Zini as “messianic” are the exact figures whose misplaced faith in peace processes cost Israel dearly in blood and security.
As Winter concluded: “It’s time to stop labeling people according to irrelevant criteria. Enough. A little more humility. It’s time for a realist to lead the Shin Bet. Together—and only together—we will prevail.”
