Moshe Yaalon
Moshe YaalonYonatan Sindel/Flash90

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon may be easing up on his own crackdown on Judea and Samaria, it was revealed Monday, after leaks from closed conversations Ya'alon had with unnamed officials indicated his support for lifting a freeze on funds to Judea-Samaria regional councils. 

"Our goal should be the immediate release of funds for the development of settlements in Judea and Samaria, and I am working to do this," Ya'alon allegedly stated. "These funds former Finance Minister Yair Lapid held for political reasons, and now they [the Knesset - ed.] have to release these funds."

Ya'alon's statements surfaced just as the Knesset Finance Committee announced that funds for Judea-Samaria regional councils had been unfrozen, after months of an on-and-off freeze instituted by Lapid for political purposes. 

Lapid's Yesh Atid party responded with sharp criticism of the move, which it claimed was "political bribery" for votes in the upcoming 2015 elections and was "an inappropriate course of action in a democratic state." 

The report, if true, also shows a sharp reversal in Ya'alon's policies thus far. The Defense Minister has been personally behind the continuation of a military seizure of the Yitzhar Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva [Torah academy - ed.] and froze funds for a project to build new housing for IDF soldiers over 1949 Armistice lines just last week. 

He has also clashed with Lapid recently, however, and was forced to stop a major IDF move to the Negev over differences with the Finance Minister over the military budget.