set-if will conditionally show or hide elements in the DOM once and will not apply a $watch listener. An additional attribute (wait-for) can be applied to the element to wait for data to be populated before evaluating the if statement i.e. <div set-if="should.behere" wait-for="should"></div>

set-if

angular.module('setIf',[]).directive('setIf',function () {
    return {
      transclude: 'element',
      priority: 1000,
      terminal: true,
      restrict: 'A',
      compile: function (element, attr, linker) {
        return function (scope, iterStartElement, attr) {
          if(attr.waitFor) {
            var wait = scope.$watch(attr.waitFor,function(nv,ov){
              if(nv) {
                build();
                wait();
              }
            });
          } else {
            build();
          }

          function build() {
            iterStartElement[0].doNotMove = true;
            var expression = attr.setIf;
            var value = scope.$eval(expression);
            if (value) {
              linker(scope, function (clone) {
                iterStartElement.after(clone);
                clone.removeAttr('set-if');
                clone.removeAttr('wait-for');
              });
            }
          }
        };
      }
    };
  });