The most complicated neighborhood in the world is even more uncertain these days, and what you see ranges from breathtaking to heart-stopping.

In Ramallah, West Bank, there are fancier cars and more economic activity than when I last visited five years ago.

That isn't the only big change: In the early days of the Obama presidency the new American president inspired hope across the Arab world. Now, there are posters and protests critical of the president, and some harsh words from everyday Palestinians.

Gaza, though, makes Ramallah look like a booming metropolis. It takes only a few yards past the Hamas checkpoint to wonder whether you stepped through a time portal: There are carts drawn by donkeys and horses, and poverty that makes you cringe.

In Gaza City, a billboard reminds you only fools get optimistic about prospects for peace here: It is a celebration of the Hamas military wing that is responsible for, among other things, rocket attacks in Israeli communities.

It doesn't have to be this way: We visited a soda bottling plant and a furniture factory that offer economic hope. But the owners of both say employment is way down -- from 150 people to 20 at the furniture factory -- because they can no longer export through Israel and have trouble getting supplies.

Just about everyone in Gaza blames Israel. But several passersby, after nervously looking around, also told me Hamas shared some of the blame for making peace such a distant hope.

This will linger: the smiles and jokes from children who came to say hello and get some candy from my CNN colleague Tasha Diakides. Their eyes still sparkle with hope, a counterbalance to the violent graffiti and posters that make one worry if the leaders here can ever set aside their hate and mistrust.

This is my ninth visit to Israel in the past 25 years, and I'm always reminded of college and my first reporting job in Rhode Island: Everything is so close.

Gaza to Jerusalem is just shy of 50 miles.