This demand, when it came from the White House (or those advising the White House), as well as from the Wall Street Journal, seems to me to lack a sensitivity to the conceptual nuance of the situation:
...get serious about ending [Israeli] settlement construction permanently and beginning the dismantling and removal of these impediments to any serious progress in the region
-Andrew Sullivan
There is a long history of different and divergent contexts of settlement construction. I hope that Andrew and all commentators could understand that, fully (it's difficult, admittedly, because the truth of the matter is highly politicized so the details are hard to come by).
In any event, there is a case to be made for settlements that does not rest on religious grounds/assertions. Just be aware of that. The fact that Sharon and Netanyahu exploited those reasons for other purposes ("facts on the ground" or whatever) is separate.
There is a chart that shows settlement activity before and after the Oslo process started, covering the rapid period in the 1990s, I believe. That's worth showing.
