More than a dozen Republican and Democratic members of Congress this week pressed the Obama administration to tone down its criticism, following initial outrage of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government for its plan to build 1,600 homes in the disputed territory.

Some also warned that a prolonged dispute could risk harming international efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program.

Thus, in his first public comments on the settlement controversy, President Barack Obama downplayed its criticism of the Israeli government over the illegal settlement expansion plan announced during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit last week, saying the spat with Israel was a disagreement among friends.

There is some speculation that the president’s reverse may be due to House Republican Eric Cantor who called the White House earlier this week to say that the Obama administration needed to “ratchet down the rhetoric” regarding Israel, arguing “that Israel is a strategic ally, and it was very damaging for the White House and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to say that the US-Israel relationship has been ‘injured.’”

Cantor, the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress and the lone Jewish Republican in the House, expressed his concerns to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, whose father is from Israel and who is also Jewish, in a telephone call Monday night.

Cantor said playing "hardball" with Israel "jeopardizes our national security."

President Obama told Fox News on Wednesday that Israel remains “one of our closest allies… (with) a special bond that’s not going to go away.” Obama described the settlement construction as “not helpful” stressed that he had also criticized Palestinians for staging protests in East Jerusalem. Both sides, he said, “need to recognize that it is in their interests to move this peace process forward.”

But US support for the illegal Israeli settlements seems to be waning. A new Rasmussen Reports poll conducted March 15-16 founds that 49 percent of American voters believed Israel should be required to stop building settlements. Fewer than half that, only 22 percent, think Israel should not be required to stop building settlements, and 29 percent aren't sure.

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, meanwhile, is also working to restore Israel’s relations here. He wrote in Thursday’s New York Times that he was “flagrantly misquoted” about remarks he made about the flap, saying “Though we differ on certain issues, our discussions are being conducted in an atmosphere of cooperation as befitting long-standing relations between allies. I am confident that we will overcome these differences shortly."

It was also announced that Obama's Middle East peace envoy, George Mitchell, will return to the region on Sunday, having postponed a trip this week over an Israeli settlement plan.

All this was further complicated with news today that Hamas launched a rocket into southern Israel that killed a farm worker there.