Saints, I have no idea what Oslo 1976 means. After the assassination of Rabin in 1995, Netanyahu started his first term as PM, and immediately set about dismantling all peace efforts. He opposes a two state solution, which almost every country in the world recognises as the only way forward.

Billyd, if I remember correctly in 1967 Israel was attacked by Egypt
Jordan an others and they got done like a dinner.
So they pushed them back and kept the area regained that was lost in 1947.
Now this is one of the problems with this whole dispute, it is easy to
forget the sequence of events. Who said what to whom.

However yes you were right the Arabs were originally willing to
have a joint country and at one time two separate areas.
These possibilities change continuously.
However the last thing I read from Abbas is that the Arabs MUST have
Jerusalem. They know that the Israelis will never give it up.

There is another problem; the Koran speaks about making treaties with
Jews and infidels. It is permitted to do so only as a subterfuge to
gain some advantage with the intention of overcoming them in the future.
A moslem is not permitted to take an infidel as a friend.
It is even worse to make a jew a friend.
These are fundamental problems.

Then of course, Hamas will not allow any Jews in the Middle East
let alone a Jewish state.

I am afraid a belief in a give and take agreement is just wishful thinking.
It has been like this since 647 ad when the Islamists sacked the
Jewish towns in ME and killed the men and took the women.
Sound familiar.

You are a little out on your history there Bazz, Israel struck first in 1967.

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/07/04/israels-attack-on-egypt-in-june-67-was-not-preemptive/

As for Jerusalem, the Palestinians are only asking for East Jerusalem, not the whole, Israel wants it all, and are building thousands of housing units in the East.

647 AD sounds familiar? Yes, it does .... http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/12/israel-crimes-settlements-161229075030106.html

Billyd, I could find no reference to 647 AD or any other AD date in your reference.
I have never seen anywhere a contradiction of Mohammed’s raids
around the ME.

"Nasser, later conveyed to U.S. President Lyndon Johnson that his
troop buildup in the Sinai Peninsula prior to the war had been to
defend against a feared Israeli attack."

A classic excuse. So who is making it ?
Myself, I think that really large Egyptian army armoured turnout
spoke for itself. Large buildups are a classic way to start a war.

Yes, of course the Arabs want as much of Jerusalem as they can get.
It was afterall previously occupied by moslems and no matter how
it was then obtained according to the koran it always remains moslem land.

Bazz, Israel attacked first, for whatever reason. Egypt claims it built it's forces in self-defence, perhaps they remembered Israel's part in the Suez crisis. Whatever their reason, they were attacked first, and of course Israel are going to say an attack was imminent, what else could they say?

My reference was pointing to the sacking of hundreds of towns and villages by the Israelis, the slaughter and forced exile of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, ethnic cleansing at its ugliest.

Palestinians are not after all of Jerusalem they can get, that's the Israelis, they only want East Jerusalem.

Well ultimately it does not matter who struck first.
It was going to happen anyway.
As far as east Jerusalem is concerned, I have been looking at the maps
and realise why the Israelis will never give up the eastern part.
It is where the Temple mount is located, in fact in the google map
the Temple Mount appears to be just east of the border.
So maybe that is the 1947 line.
I can see that Jerusalem extends into the West Bank area and a strait
border line would put the whole of Jerusalem into Arab hands.
It will just have to be accepted that the Israelis will never hand
over Jerusalem.
If the Arabs assembled enough force to overwhelm the Israelis as a
survival act they would use nuclear weapons.
No doubt they have hinted this to the Arab countries or they realise
it them selves.
Facing annihilation would they have a choice ?