The following is the first phase of a project aimed at helping monitor outposts and clarify the potential difficulty in countering them for the sake of peace. The data is based in large part on extensive research conducted over years by the Peace Now organization, augmented with and cross-referenced by information from settlers and Haaretz correspondents.

The accompanying map of outposts is under construction. It is, as is the lists of outposts below - and the outposts themselves - a work in progress.

The public will be invited to assist this project. Information on new outposts, or changes in existing outposts, is welcome via the Talkback feature.

Of the long list of hackneyed pro-Israel arguments which persuade no one except previously and permanently persuaded fellow-Israelis, none tops the tired clunker trotted out by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in his U.S. visit to Washington this month.

Settlements in the West Bank, he told reporters after talks with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, are "not an obstacle to achieve peace."

Permit me at this point to save some time, and to speak candidly. Everyone - and I do mean everyone, whether they are willing to publicly acknowledge this or not - knows that obstacles are precisely what West Bank settlements were put there to be.

Settlements, whether considered legal or illegal, whether granted overt or blind-eye Israeli government sanction, or placed there by unruly-eyed fanatics who hate the Israeli government almost as much as they hate Arabs, have a common goal.

They were built to be explicit, intentional, physical, literal obstacles to any peace process that would include ceding West Bank land to Palestinians. And that, everyone knows, describes any conceivable future peace process.

Yes, they are also a place to live. And yes, the land they occupy may well be mentioned in the bible, even scores of times. And yes, generations of Jews have now been born and raised there. But this last only underscores the reason they are there.

It should be noted that at this point, there are in fact three distinct classes of West Bank settlements. The first are the government-approved enclaves on the "Israel side" of the West Bank barrier. Under a future peace deal, these are expected to be annexed to Israel, with an acreage-equivalent swath of the western Negev appended to an independent Palestine.

The second class, in every sense, are government-authorized settlements scattered across the West Bank, on the "Palestinian-side" of the fence/wall.

Finally, there are the outpost settlements, which Israel and even elements of the settler movement concede are illegal.

If the settlements are obstacles, the outposts are designed to be landmines. They are volatile, potentially explosive, often vaguely marked and defined.

They defend established settlements by creating a protective outer ring of obstructions to be cleared prior to any move to raze the older, larger, more solidly built enclaves.

And if Barack Obama and, for that matter, Benjamin Netanyahu, make any substantive moves toward Mideast peace, the number of these minefields is certain to mushroom.

The current list:

1. ADEI AD
2. AHAVAT HAIM
3. AHIYA
4. ALONEI SHILO, OR NOF KANEH FARM
5. ALTITUDE 468, or, NOFEI PRAT WEST.
6. AMONA
7. ANCIENT SYNAGOGUE OF SUSYA
8. ASA'EL
9. AVIGAIL
10. BAT AYIN EAST
11. BAT AYIN WEST
12. BEIT EL EAST
13. BNEI ADAM, OR ADAM EAST
14. BRACHA A
15. BRUCHIN
16. DERECH HA'AVOT
17. EIN PRAT
18. ELISHA, OR TZOFIT [PRE-IDF SERVICE ACADEMY]
19. ELMATAN
20. ESH KODESH
21. GILAD FARM
22. GIVAT ASSAF
23. GIVAT HADAGAN
24. GIVAT HADEGEL
25. GIVAT HAHISH
26. GIVAT HAREL
27. GIVAT HATAMAR
28. GIVAT SALIT
29. GVA'OT OLAM
30. HABAYIT HA'ADOM, OR HADA'AT FARM
31. HAHAR
32. HAKARON
33. HANEKUDA
34. HAR HEMED
35. HARESHA
36. HARO'EH, OR ELI 762
37. HAYOVEL
38. HERUTI
39. HILL 26, OR KARMEI NETANEL
40. HILL 725
41. HILL 777
42. HILL 782
43. HILL 836
44. HILL 851
45. HORESH YARON
46. IBEI HANAHAL
47. JABEL ARITIS, OR ALT. 909
48. KARMEI DORON, OR EINAV NORTHEAST
49. KFAR TAPUAH WEST
50. KIDA, OR ADEI AD NORTH
51. KOCHAV YAAKOV EAST
52. KOCHAV YAAKOV WEST
53. LEHAVAT YITZHAR
54. MAALEH EFRAIM [PRE-IDF SERVICE ACADEMY]
55. MAALEH HAGIT
56. MAALEH ISRAEL
57. MAALEH REHAVAM
58. MAALEH SHLOMO
59. MAAVAR MICHMASH, OR MIGRON SOUTH
60. MAGEN DAN
61. MAON FARM, OR HILL 833
62. MAOZ ZVI
63. MAROM AYALON, OR MEVO HORON NORTH
64. MEVO'OT JERICHO
65. MIGRON
66. MISHPATEI ARETZ, OR BEIT HAGDUD [YESHIVA]
67. MITZPEH DANNY
68. MITZPEH ESHTAMOA, OR SHIM'A NORTH
69. MITZPEH HA'AI
70. MITZPEH JERICHO NORTHEAST
71. MITZPEH KRAMIM
72. MITZPEH LACHISH
73. MITZPEH YAIR, OR MAGEN DAVID
74. MITZPEH YITZHAR
75. MOR FARM
76. MUL NEVO
77. NEVE DANIEL NORTH, OR SDE BO'AZ
78. NEVE EREZ
79. NOF HARIM
80. NOF NESHER, OR LUCIFER FARM
81. NOFEI NEHEMIA
82. OFRA NORTHEAST
83. OLD MASSUOT YITZHAK
84. OMER FARM, OR EINOT KEDEM
85. PALGEI HAMAYIM, OR HIRBET A-SHUNA
86. PNEI KEDEM
87. RAMAT GILAD
88. RACHELIM SOUTH
89. SDE BAR FARM, OR KFAR ELDAD
90. SDE KALEV, OR KIRYAT ARBA SOUTH
91. SHALHEVET FARM, OR YITZHAR WEST
92. SKALI'S FARM, OR POINT 792
93. SNEH YAAKOV
94. SUSYA NORTHWEST, OR RUJUM El CHAMRI
95. TEKOA B AND C
96. TEKOA D
97. TZUR SHALEM
98. YAIR FARM
99. YATIR SOUTHWEST
100. ZAIT RAANAN