After cutting off negotiations with moderate Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog and inserting Yisrael Beitenu head Avigdor Liberman into the government as defense minister instead, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu picked up the phone to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last week. As a reminder, it is no secret that Liberman hails from the most right-wing of the political map, at least at the moment.

There was great fury toward Netanyahu in Cairo, in light of the fact that the Egyptian president himself rolled up his sleeves in anticipation of international steps designed to jump-start the peace process, with the backing of 24 Knesset members of the Zionist Camp, on the failed assumption that Herzog will join the government.

Netanyahu, who boasts a close relationship and unprecedented security alliance with Sisi, informed the fuming Egyptian president that he, Netanyahu, stands behind every word of the understandings and promises that he dispensed in recent months. “Everything is still valid,” said Netanyahu, according to sources who were privy to the contents of the conversation and who spoke with Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. When Sisi asked how it will be possible to implement all their plans with Liberman, Netanyahu answered, “He’s on. I spoke to him.”

A week later, in the third week of May, Housing Minister Gen. (Res.) Yoav Galant said, in a private talk with Jewish leaders in New York, according to a political source who spoke with Haaretz daily, “Government policy is not to build in Judea and Samaria.” Thus, for the first time, an Israeli minister in office admits to the de facto “quiet building freeze” in settlements that is taking place in the West Bank.