‘Waste of time’: Northern mayors said to blast Netanyahu after meeting him following hours-long delay

The mayors of several northern communities severely criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a meeting with him this evening, during which he was presented with demands for increased physical protection for towns and tax benefits for residents of that embattled region.

According to the Israel Hayom daily, multiple council chiefs expressed anger at repeated delays in today’s meeting, saying they had been made to wait for hours and that the meeting did not produce any significant developments and was a “waste of time.”

Metula Regional Council chief David Azoulay, who skipped the meeting, tells the Walla news site that he has “heard enough from [Netanyahu], I no longer believe the talk and declarations.”

“We want the Israeli government and the cabinet to include the disarmament and total dissolution of Hezbollah, both militarily and politically, within the goals of the war in Lebanon. This is for the benefit of the entire country’s citizens, and specifically for the residents of Metula and the Galilee. Until that happens, I don’t want to hear from them, and they shouldn’t come to me. We want only one thing: security,” he says.

Council chiefs in the north have recently fiercely criticized the government over what they call an inadequate effort to protect the citizens, and have protested a recent decision to cut programs intended to strengthen frontline communities.

Northern residents have also expressed concern that the IDF will not be allowed to “finish the job” in Lebanon.