Some secrets were meant to be kept, and some secrets were meant to be leaked.

I don't know how long this secret has been kept under wraps, but considering the release of 104 terrorists was only announced a few days ago, the secret deal between PM Netanyahu and Habayit Hayehudi cannot have existed for very long.

It seems that they had a secret arrangement by which Habayit Hayehudi would support the release of the 104 terrorists, in exchange for the construction in Judea and Samaria of thousands of additional housing units.

Habayit Hayehudi has not confirmed the secret deal, which was given an awful lot of exposure for something so secret, and has said that they are constantly demanding continued construction of additional housing in Judea and Samaria, and they voted unanimously against the decision to release terrorists. Other anonymous Habayit Hayehudi officials said that the secret deal is what allowed the release to pass fairly quietly - even though Habayit Hayehudi voted against, they did let it pass quietly without making much of a ruckus.

The exposure of a secret deal like this is surely not going to be viewed upon favorably by those working on peace negotiations, specifically John Kerry who has done a lot to bring the Palestinians to the table, nor to the Palestinians themselves, who will likely exploit this to halt the negotiations (even though there never was an official building freeze since the 10 month freeze a few years ago) that have hardly begun, and the Left wing politicians in Israel who point to it as an indication that the PM is trying to undermine the negotiations right from the start - even though no building freeze was made conditional for the start of negotiations.

Either way, some people just can't keep a secret. Unless they never intended to..