JERUSALEM — Cameras were rolling, capturing the defiant Israeli mood over President Obama's stand on Jewish settlements.
With three other Cabinet officials at his side, Interior Minister Eli Yishai toured a Jewish outpost in the West Bank on Monday and declared: "Israel must do what it believes is right, and the Americans will understand that there was no choice but to continue building" on Palestinian-claimed land.
That evening, as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee attended a dinner in support of a Jewish housing project in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, an Israeli demonstrator unfurled a banner portraying Obama in a checkered Palestinian kaffiyeh. "Barack Hussein Obama -- Anti Semite Jew-Hater," it read.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has exploited such sentiment to depict Washington's opposition to settlement growth as unreasonable. But Israeli officials say he is also seeking a compromise that would limit the growth and facilitate Obama's goal of restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Several officials said Tuesday that Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Housing Minister Ariel Atias had quietly agreed to suspend all government tenders to build new Jewish housing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem at least until the start of next year.
The government and its critics acknowledge that there has been no green light for construction bids since November and that Netanyahu, after taking office on March 31, allowed the de facto suspension to continue.
One official said the recent decision, which was not announced, makes the suspension explicit in advance of a new round of talks set for next week between Netanyahu and U.S. envoy George J. Mitchell.
"The fact is, we are in a holding pattern," Atias told Israel Radio. "This is an attempt, I believe, to reach an understanding with the American administration, to reach a comprehensive peace agreement."
Israel's move falls short of the total freeze the Obama administration initially sought. At the same time, it has provoked an outcry within Netanyahu's conservative-led government, highlighting the difficulty of ending Israel's most pointed disagreement in years with the United States.
Obama said Tuesday that he was nonetheless encouraged.
"There has been movement in the right direction," he told reporters at the White House after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Israel "has taken discussions with us very seriously."
