They also occupied the Sinai for some years John, I was fortunate enough to travel round it at the time. I think one of the reasons behind the Yom Kippur war was about Egypt reclaiming the Sinai, they lost. Eventually Egypt and Israel recognised the futility of war and came to a peace agreement and in the process the Israelis returned the Sinai to it's rightful owners, that was 30 years ago and the peace deal still holds, as does the peace deal with Jordan made 20 years ago.
Interestingly, Egypt and Jordan are the only two official borders Israel has, the Arabs who refer to themselves as Palestinians have never been an independent state, having rejected the opportunity to become a state on at least 4 occasions. Hamas aren't interested in an independent state, they're only interested in destroying Israel, that's why Hamas aren't concerned about civilian casualties and why they've queered the cease fire talks.
