MR Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing coalition partners have been deliberately turning up the heat on the Prime Minister in advance of today's summit talks in Egypt. While Mr Netanyahu has been trying to find a formula that will lure the Palestinians back to the peace table, his own hardliners are giving him next to no room for manoeuvre.
Last Friday, Israel Television reported that Mr Netanyahu was planning to declare a temporary freeze in construction work at Har Homah the controversial East Jerusalem Jewish housing project - in order to restart talks that have been suspended since the bulldozers started clearing land there more than two months ago.
Within minutes, the Deputy Education Minister, Mr Moshe Pelted, a member of one of the minor coalition factions, had phoned the studio to announce that, if such a plan were indeed taking shape, it would mean the end of the government. Soon afterwards a spokesman for Mr Netanyahu denied that any building halt was being contemplated.
Subsequently, another coalition member from another faction, Mr Shaul Yahalom of the National Religious Party (NRP), declared that Mr Netanyahu should not freeze construction at Har Homah or at any other settlement for even 24 hours. Chimed in Mr Hanan Porat, also of the NRP: "It's time for the Americans, the Arab world and part of the Israeli media to realise that Netanyahu does not have a coalition for compromise in the West Bank or Jerusalem."
It was Mr Netanyahu who got himself into this deadend in the first place, defying moderate counsel by authorising the start of building at Har Homah in March.
Amid reports that Israel's own intelligence services are now warning of a growing threat of the peace impasse leading to war, the Prime Minister would clearly now like to find a way out.
Mr Netanyahu's dilemma, as the left wing Meretz party leader, Mr Yossi Sarid, noted on Sunday, "is whether to risk war, or to risk the breakup of his coalition."
While that may be a simple enough choice for most observers, it is not for the Prime Minister, especially now that the opposition Labour party, which until recently was contemplating joining him in a more pragmatic "unity government," has eschewed the idea of any partnership with Mr Netanyahu.
Reuter adds:
Israel has confiscated about 7,500 acres of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank this year in a drive to expand Jewish settlements, a left wing Israeli legislator said yesterday.
Mr Dedi Zucker of the opposition Meretz party said on the eve of the Israeli Egyptian summit that the Defence Minister, Mr Yitzhak Mordechai, had approved the seizures. Mr Mordechai's office declined immediate comment.