Kathulos:
I haven't given up hope. But as a believer in the Second Coming of Jesus I believe hope is misplaced in human beings as capable of solving this issue. The only way to make things better is to "make things better". We can't solve this problem anymore than we can stop things like death, and taxes.
Fair enough. I tend to disagree. Even when I'm most discouraged by the situation, I feel we're obligated to at least try to find a solution. Sort of the old "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" cliche, maybe. Maybe we'll try to make things better, and fail, but if we don't try, then we automatically fail. I tend not to have much interest in the thoughts of those who just want to point fingers while believing that no solution is possible.
I also don't accept the "Jesus will show up any time now, so we don't need a permanent solution, we just need to minimize the damage for a few years," position. People have been expecting Jesus to show up "any day now" for almost 2000 years now. When some preacher put a specific date on it a few months back, he was pretty widely ridiculed as a crack pot, but a huge number of christians in the US seem to have similar (just less specific) views. And in this case, it sounds like it could be leading similar bad decisions. While "lets spend our retirement money on a billboard ad, because Jesus is coming and we won't need our retirement money anyway!" is a bad call for one family, "let's not try to solve this conflict because Jesus is coming and will sort it all out for us!" is a decision that affects millions of people in an even-more detrimental fashion. In general, people who are convinced there's not going to be a next year tend to avoid doing the necessary work this year to make next year livable. Now, your estimate on just when Jesus is going to come back may not be as short as next year, but if it's causing you to change your views about what we should or shouldn't bother doing right now, I think it's a stumbling block to peace. Ironically, while Jesus said blessed are the peace-makers, some people view peace-making as unnecessary because of their belief that Jesus is just around the corner. Of course, evangelicals aren't the only ones letting their religion get in the way of peace in this situation. There's plenty of Jews and Muslims who are absolutely convinced that god is on their side, so they prefer to keep fighting than to seek peace. I view it as a bit of a cop-out. People who believe a deity is going to decide who wins or looses no matter what they do, or who believe a deity has instructed them on what action to take aren't taking responsibility for the situation, won't work for a mutually beneficial compromise. Ironically, in a land that's holy to three religions, all of which claim to be religions of peace (though some claim this less than others), it tends to be the most secular on all sides that seem the most interested in working towards peaceful compromise. There are exceptions (both peace-seeking religious people, and violence-promoting seculars) of course, but in my observation, the stronger ones religious conviction, the less likely one is to favor peaceful compromise in this situation.
All that's a bit of a ramble, and perhaps a bit off topic, though. Anyway, I'm with sciencemile on this one, Kathulos. If you don't think peace is possible, realize that those who do probably won't be too interested in your opinion about what should be done. Not saying don't share your views, but understand that your views will be based on different assumptions than others have, which may make the discussion largely pointless. Which is the best option to achieve
your desired outcome is mostly besides the point to someone who has a different desired outcome.