Member of Knesset Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) said Monday night that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu forced United States President Barack Obama to impose the freeze declared on Jewish building in Judea and Samaria. Speaking to ambassadors and other diplomats at the Center for Strategic Dialogue of the Netanya Academic College, the former defense minister said that if Netanyahu had presented a detailed diplomatic plan after his speech at Bar Ilan University, he could have told Obama that he would agree to a freeze except in settlement blocs. He added that the prime minister's lack of a plan also led to the Swedish proposal up for consideration Tuesday by European Union foreign ministers of eastern Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian Authority state.

Mofaz presented his own proposal for a gradual creation of a PA state while core issues are negotiated. Jerusalem would not be up for discussion. Former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh, who chairs the dialogue center, said that the current diplomatic standstill was dangerous, and called the Mofaz plan a serious one worth public discussion.