Defense Minister Ehud Barak referred at the Labor Party faction meeting in the Knesset today to the tension in recent days with the U.S., noting that he met with Special Envoy George Mitchell's assistant, Fred Hoff, on ways to diffuse the tension and to resume negotiations with the Palestinians.

"We need to continue to act so that the government should continue to work for negotiations, to forget the crisis and continue proximity talks toward getting direct talks back on the right track. That is one of the main reasons the Labor party is in the government." said Barak.