Moshe Ya'alon
Moshe Ya'alonYonatan Sindel / Flash 90

All of Judea and Samaria's 24 mayors were invited to Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon's offices for a Rosh Hashana (New Year's) toast on Tuesday, but very few actually made it to the gathering. 

According to one report, only five regional council heads were in attendance while the rest begged off, claiming "tight schedules."

One mayor told Arutz Sheva that the ceremony was hastily planned with regional council heads only receiving the invitation last week. 

"Come to the offices at 7:30 p.m.," we were told, the mayor related, "just a week before? It seems impossible to me. We have meetings set in advance at the Regional Council offices. I'm sorry for we were invited in this manner."

From recent conversations Arutz Sheva has had with senior officials in Judea-Samaria's Regional Councils, it appears there are two possible reasons for the snub. 

One reason is simply that the Defense Minister's office did not issue the invitation far enough advance, but the mayors' refusal to attend the toast could also be connected to dissatisfaction with Ya'alon's treatment of the Judea-Samaria region. 

"Minister Ya'alon, unfortunately, has not worked for the sake of Judea and Samaria for a long time," one senior official told Arutz Sheva.

"Not only that he does not build there and basically strangles the communities, but he also has signed his name to several unjust demolitions in recent months as well as more to come in the future."

"So on the one hand, it might have been the failure of the minister's office to organize a dignified ceremony, but it's also fair to say that officials are severely disappointed with ongoing attempts to strangle the communities as part of some government plan or another," the source said.