Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon revealed on Tuesday that the US has pressure Israel into freezing all construction of new homes in Judea and Samaria.

In a closed door meeting with students at the Mekor Chaim Yeshiva in Gush Etzion, the school attended by two of the three teens murdered by Hamas in June, one student asked, “Why did you hold a freeze in the settlements?”

The question, which was played in a recording Wednesday morning by IDF Radio, put the Ya’alon on the spot.

While the defense minister said that he wants to “approve more plans” to build, Ya’lon suggested that Israel must bide its time with the current Obama administration, which “won’t last forever.”

Ya’alon explained that Israel has adopted a more “cautious” stance when it comes to construction in East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, saying that plans have long drawn anger from “the Americans, first.”

The defense minister said that since “any report on building – even in Jerusalem, sets off a response from” international officials, including “our allies” who have continually “attacked us.”

“This is why were are very careful,” Ya’alon explained. “Even ministers in other parties understood this.”