[Poreponko]

You have a region where three major religions all claim that they were given the land by divine right, all have holy sites in the area ( often for the same event in their religious history) and all three religions basically hate each other and claim that they are acting in legitimate self defence.

(I know that in Middle East violence the Christians are only bit players but there are there and have participated in the violence.)

The ironic thing is that all three religions not only share the same roots but claim to have a belief in peace and coexistence with other religions.

I do not think that there will ever be peace in the region as the elites of these groups have too much invested in a culture of hatred and retaliation.

I don't thinl there will ever be peace for the simple reason of "time". There are very few members of the populace now who ever remember living in peace. There has been vary states of wars and fighting for more than 50 years now and I believe that has become entrenched in the culture, in much the same way that living in peace has become entrenched in the West. To create peace now you're essentially asking several generations, and millions of people to go against the only thing they know - conflict.

I also believe that as long as religion - any religion - holds such a dominant sway over a country or region, there will always be conflict. People who adhere to fundamentalist religiious views can never live in harmony with others, whether they be Muslim, Christian, Jew, et al. Fundamentalist religious views simply doesn't allow for tolerance of other religious views.

I applaud your question though. It's a very worthwile topic for discussion ... I only wish we didn't have to.