While the new Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to remove around two dozen illegal outposts in the West Bank, the prospect of the planned evacuation remains elusive.

The outposts are among some 100 dotted around the occupied territories that were illegally constructed or erected by Jewish settlers who live on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war.

Many of the outposts are uninhabited and merely house flimsy structures, and others including caravans lived in by Jews who believe the West Bank is an essential part of Israel, whose arguments are based on biblical promises.

On Thursday, Israeli police and security officers managed to dismantle the outpost of Maoz Esther, which, not far from the Palestinian city Ramallah, was inhabited by a handful of families.

Nevertheless, just hours after the demolition of the mix of permanent and temporary structures, the outpost's residents had begun to rebuild it.

"They've already taken that same outpost down five times," said Rabbis for Human Rights Executive Director Arik Ascherman.

Israel would not allow illegal construction to continue in the West Bank, Moshe Yaalon, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Strategic Affairs and former military chief of staff, was quoted by Israeli Channel 2 as saying on Saturday.

However, he differentiated between that and the expansion of settlements sanctioned by the Israeli government, adding that building work will continue in existing settlements to take "natural growth" into account.

Natural growth is the term Israel uses to define the need to expand existing settlements to meet demand. However, Israeli critics say that is merely an excuse to expand the settlements and maintain Israel's grip on the West Bank.

The dismantling of the Maoz Esther outpost took place in the same week Netanyahu met US President Barack Obama in the White House.

"Settlements have to be stopped in order to move forward. That's a difficult issue. I recognize that, but it's an important one and it has to be addressed," Obama told reporters at a joint news conference in Washington with Netanyahu.

The settlement movement leaders insisted that there is a virtual freeze on building activities in the West Bank.

"The only construction work going on is the projects approved in the distant and dusty past, and believe me there is a huge demand right now," said Shaul Goldstein, the regional council chief in Gush Etzion, a few miles to the south of Jerusalem.

As for the outposts, the settlers say they have asked Israeli Defense Ministry in numerous occasions to discuss the issue, but their calls for meetings have been turned down.

They also claim that many of the areas designated as outposts were approved a long time ago by the Israeli government as new residential zones.

"Some were delineated by the government as settlements and others have entered into the land registry," said Goldstein.

Ascherman believed much of what Goldstein says is true. It is not that the government formally recognized the outposts, but they received "backhanded" recognition through the years in terms of funding.

Ever since the international peace plan road map was introduced in 2003 as a recipe for the Palestinian-Israeli peace, Israel has committed to removing the outposts. However, few has been successfully taken down, while many more have cropped up across the West Bank.

In its editorial on the issue, Israeli daily Ha'aretz pulls no punches.

"The defense minister, who has authority over the occupied territories, must explain to the Israelis and Palestinians why it is that instead of immediately enforcing the law against violators, he has carried out pointless negotiations with their representatives for years over consensual evacuation," the paper writes under the headline Enough with the Outpost Disgrace.

The new government will arguably find it politically more difficult to deal with the issue than its recent predecessors. Netanyahu's coalition mainly relies on the support of hawkish parties. The manifestoes of at least three of the parties comprise of his government call for Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.

Habayit Hayehudi (The Jewish Home) party, for example, pledges to ensure "that no Jewish settlements be uprooted and that the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) remain entirely under Israeli sovereignty."

This is going to lead to "clear policy clashes" between Israel and the international community, including the United States, according to Ascherman.

Yet the leaders of the settlement movement, who speak for most of the some 250,000 Israelis living in the West Bank, say Israel must remain committed to the settlers, providing the full range of services, to which any taxpayer is entitled, including providing ample housing for future generations.

The settlement issue is just one of a series of potential stumbling blocks for any resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

The main demand of the Palestinians is the creation of a state on the land Israel took in the 1967 War. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, it has so far not pulled out of any of the West Bank.

Indeed, since the early 1970s, many Israeli governments, including dovish ones headed by the Labor Party, have actively encouraged Israelis to move into the landlocked area that covers some 5,800 square kilometers.

When Israeli governments showed willingness to discuss a two-state solution, the fate of the settlements has always prevented the progress.

Over the years, Israel has proposed a variety of solutions, but so far none of Israel's suggestions are acceptable to the Palestinians.

The additional factor of illegal West Bank outposts, not only from an international perspective, but also from that of the Israeli government, has only sought to add fuel to the fire in recent years.

The Obama administration will be watching carefully to see if the removal of Maoz Esther on Thursday was a one-off gesture from the Netanyahu government or a sign of real intention to tackle the outpost issue, with which the goodwill needed to resume the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will be created.