A plan to build 84 housing units in Kiryat Arba is being reconsidered at the
request of Kadima, Vice Premier Shaul Mofaz told the Kadima faction on
Monday.
Mofaz said he protested Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s
decision last week to include Kiryat Arba in his list of West Bank settlements
in which there would be new construction. He said he told Netanyahu that he
opposed building outside the settlement blocs and that he should not have had to
hear about the decision from the press.
The Kadima leader said Netanyahu
promised him that he would not be surprised on such issues again. The prime
minister said Mofaz would be added to a new committee on settlements that
Netanyahu himself will head.
“I protested the decision but I do not think
it is right to instigate a coalition crisis over the matter,” Mofaz told the
faction.
A few MKs disagreed and voiced their opposition, including
Kadima rebels Shlomo Molla and Nino Abesadze and Mofaz loyalist Yohanan Plesner.
Rightist Kadima MK Yulia Shamolov Berkovich expressed support for building in
Kiryat Arba.
“The prime minister slapped his coalition partner in the
face in an effort to find favor with the extreme Right,” Molla said.
“It
was not right of Bibi to not ask Kadima in advance and it was not right that
Kadima did not stop this decision. Our party was formed to make
peace.”
Mofaz took credit for Netanyahu’s decision to oppose the “Outpost
Bill” last Wednesday.
“Kadima is moving the government toward the
Center,” Mofaz said. “Having a larger coalition enables Kadima to advance its
banner of advancing negotiations with the Palestinians.”
Mofaz said he
would go to Washington next week for diplomatic meetings and he would soon meet
with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.