SHAUL MOFAZ AGREED TO SUPPORT BUILDING PROJECT FOR KIRYAT ARBA

It clearly won't win him approval from the left, but he was willing to do something right here:

Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz should have prevented Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from initiating West Bank building projects, especially in Kiryat Arba, which is not part of the settlement blocs near the Green Line, MKs in the party said Thursday.

When the plan to build 851 housing units in the West Bank was announced Wednesday night, Mofaz objected to the plan to build in Kiryat Arba while acquiescing to build in the blocs. Netanyahu initially removed Kiryat Arba from the list of building projects at Mofaz’s request, but the prime minister put it back on the list later that night after protests from the Right.

Mofaz faced criticism for not torpedoing the move not only from rebel MKs who want to leave Kadima and those who backed Mofaz’s rival Tzipi Livni in the March 27 leadership race but also from legislators who backed him.

“I support Mofaz but his silence on Kiryat Arba is very grave,” MK Shai Hermesh said.

“Kadima should have been criticizing this decision all day. Instead of getting credit as a moderate prime minister for abiding by the court’s decision on the Ulpana outpost, by building in Kiryat Arba, Bibi is once again absorbing international criticism on an issue that not only does the international community oppose but also his coalition partners.”

He is not obligated to please the "international" community, whatever that means, and should not have to please the leftist dominated supreme court in Israel either. It's good to see common sense prevailed and Netanyahu restored Kiryat Arba's project.

The Israeli government estimates the storm will pass on this issue overseas as well:

The government announced authorization of 851 new homes in the settlements despite an anticipated wave of international condemnations because it believes that – as in previous instances – the storm will pass, officials said on Thursday.

The officials spoke even as the US, France and UN already slammed the decision to build the new housing units. [...]

“We had no illusions that the international community was going to embrace the move,” one official said.

Could they be more specific and make clear that it's mostly the political society outside of Israel that would be so hostile? In any case, the overseas politicians most certainly should get over it and start worrying about more important things, which alas, they're unlikely to do.