Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

Secretary of State John Kerry gestures as he speaks at the American Jewish Committee Global Forum in Washington, Monday, June 3, 2013.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel and the Palestinians on Monday to revive stalled peace talks, warning that the alternative was a "negative spiral of responses."

"We're running out of time. If we do not succeed now, we may not get another chance," Kerry said in a speech to the American Jewish Committee in which he urged American Jews to support peace efforts to revive stalled peace talks. "The status quo is simply not sustainable."

Kerry said the best way to ensure Israel's security was by ending "once and for all conflict with the Palestinians by summoning the courage to achieve peace and by reaching a negotiated resolution."

"The absence of peace is perpetual conflict. ... We will find ourselves in a negative spiral of responses and counter-responses that could literally slam the door on a two-state solution," he said.

Kerry, who has visited Israel four times in his four months in office to try to restart peace talks, acknowledged skepticism that the two sides could resolve their differences.

U.S.-brokered peace efforts broke down in 2010 in a dispute over Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The Palestinians want a settlement construction freeze, while Israel insists talks should be held without preconditions.

"I fully recognize the challenges and predicament in which Israel finds itself, but I also firmly believe this is a hopeful time if we choose to make it so. This can actually be a time for possibility, a time for promise," Kerry said.

"I still believe peace is achievable," he added.

Kerry said a stable Palestinian state and a flourishing economy would strengthen Israel's security. During a visit to Jordan last month, he announced a plan to spur Palestinian growth with up to $4 billion in private investment.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is leading a group working to identify opportunities in tourism, construction, energy, agriculture and high-tech industries in the Palestinian territories.

Earlier on Monday, Kerry said he would decide at some point whether to return to Israel and the Palestinian territories to push for decisions by the two sides on reviving talks.

"I will make a judgment at some point whether I need to go and push a little bit, or help that process, and I am certainly willing to. I am open to that possibility but we are not raising any expectations about an American plan," Kerry told reporters at a news conference with the Polish foreign minister.

Kerry said he looked forward to working with new Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, who was appointed on Sunday to replace Western-favored economist Salam Fayyad, who quit in April.

Nasser Shiyoukhi / AP

Palestinian activists vandalize a poster of U.S. President Barack Obama in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Monday.

TEL AVIV – Among Palestinians there is a coming president whose approach is creating quite a buzz of expectation.

With apologies to the White House, it is not Barack Obama, who is set to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on a three-day Middle East visit that kicks off Wednesday.

Indeed, his or her name is not even known. What is being awaited with mounting excitement is the winner of the latest reality TV show.

Called simply "The President," it is a search among the youths of the West Bank and Gaza for a candidate with the skills and charisma to lead a people still in search of their own state.

Some of the 1,000-plus hopefuls were gathered for a recording in Bethlehem over the weekend.

It was quickly obvious that these were well-educated, serious-minded young men and women thinking serious thoughts about the Palestinian territory's many economic, social and political challenges.

An irony was quickly apparent, too.

For many, President Obama's rise from outsider to Oval Office is an inspiration for their own ambitions.

But when it comes to helping realize their ambition for a Palestinian state, they have more or less given up on him.

"Not all Palestinians welcome Obama," said Bashar Falashat, a 26-year-old business studies graduate from Hebron. "Half see his visit as just a tourism trip. We need him to see the reality, to see how we are suffering, but most Palestinians believe that he will not change anything."

Several of the candidates think Obama's heart is with Palestine but his head is wedded to Israeli interests.

Twenty-one-year-old Akhla Salman studies psychology and social work in Jerusalem.

"I know America is the leading country for freedom and human rights, and I respect Obama because he is a good man," she said. "But between America and Israel there is a very strong relationship."

Near-zero expectations
Their near-zero expectations are being deliberately matched by the White House: Obama might be Nobel Peace Prize winner but he has no new plan to make peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Instead, the president will be in "listening mode" as he meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, and with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday.

According to a recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute at Tel Aviv University, a majority of the Jewish public -- 51 percent -- believes Obama's attitude toward Israel is merely neutral, while 10.5 percent regard him as hostile.

Meanwhile, Israel's Arab minority sees Obama as being very much pro-Israel.

On the face of it, Obama's more passive stance ahead of the visit is good news for Aviela Dietch, a mother of three and someone with perhaps as little trust in Obama as in her Palestinian neighbors.

Lior Mizrahi / Pool via Reuters, file

An Israeli border police officer stands in front of a truck lifting a structure during its removal from the Migron outpost near the West Bank city of Ramallah on September 5, 2012.

"I don't find that it is his place to tell us what to do here," she said.

Born in Milwaukee, Dietch is one of the three hundred thousand Jews who have made homes on the West Bank – land seized by Israeli forces in the 1967 war and occupied ever since.

These settlements, illegal under international law, are widely seen as the biggest obstacle to a peace deal. They are eating up territory earmarked for a Palestinian state.

Dietch lived in a hilltop community called Migron, unusual because it was deemed illegal even under Israeli law. Last autumn, after years of court action, the government was forced to demolish it.

"It was gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, to leave," she said as she walked past the few cabins and a small playground that still survive.

Her home now is just a few hundred yards down the hill, in another Jewish settlement.

Asked if she would be prepared to sacrifice that in the cause of peace, she replied without hesitation: "Of course not," she said. "And I don't think it would bring anybody peace. To ask us to sacrifice lives and homes we have been building up – there would be a civil war. A civil war."

The settlers are by no means representative of wider Israeli opinion but they are a big power in the newly formed Israeli coalition government.

That's one reason why Obama seems to have concluded there is no reason to waste energy and political capital on pushing along a peace process.

The highest hope is to cajole confidence-building measures out of Netanyahu: the release of some Palestinian prisoners, or perhaps progress on a temporary settlement freeze.

Indeed, in media briefings, Ben Rhodes, deputy National Security adviser, has placed the Israel-Palestinian conflict last on an agenda topped by Iran, Syria and wider regional turmoil.

'Operation Unbreakable Alliance'
These are issues which matter much more to mainstream Israel, and the best place to measure the mainstream is Tel Aviv – the beach-side city that is more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern.

"Personally, I was more moved by Bill Clinton, but Obama is totally reliable," said David Malka, a 52-year-old taxi-driver who works streets that were protected by the U.S.-funded Iron Dome missile shield during last year's conflict with Hamas.

That's a practical demonstration of the value of U.S. defense aid worth $3 billion annually, not to mention American diplomatic clout, a sort of Iron Dome that deflects unfriendly fire at the United Nations.

"He is a hundred percent committed to Israel's security and on Iran; if the moment comes, the U.S. has proved in the past that they help when we need help."

As for Iran, Israel and the U.S. are clearly working on different timetables. Obama told Israeli TV last week he believes Tehran is a year away of nuclear weapons; Netanyahu's "red line" is this summer.

The two leaders have notoriously cool relations -- and this visit is Obama's first to the Jewish state as president. Many here suspect Obama doesn't quite get what it is to be Israeli.

But most are as confident as the Palestinians are pessimistic, that the fifth serving president to visit Israel will be true to the trip's branding as "Operation Unbreakable Alliance."

Related:

More stories from NBC's 'On the Brink' series about Obama's Middle East visit

A Palestinian Rosa Parks is needed: Israel's segregated buses spark outrage

A $1 billion bet on peace: Qatar funds huge Palestinian settlement in West Bank

Paul Goldman / NBC News

The new settlement under construction at Rawabi.

RAWABI, West Bank — As gambles go, it hardly gets bigger: A $1 billion dollar bet on peace — or at least a measure of calm — in the West Bank.

Even the founder of Rawabi, the biggest construction project in the history of the Palestinian people, says nobody in his right mind would invest here.

Standing on a wind-swept hilltop overlooking the biblical hills of Judea, a half-hour drive from Ramallah, Bashar Al-Masri points to the Palestinian flags flying atop the giant cranes that are building, with phenomenal speed, the first modern Palestinian town.

"As a teenager, raising the Palestinian flag was enough to be shot and killed," he says, immaculate in a form-hugging, thin-lapelled dark suit and narrow burgundy tie.

"This is a small, symbolic way of how long we came along, and how much we will come along in the future," adds Al-Masri, who as a teenager threw stones at Israeli soldiers.

The largest flag is mounted on a pole facing the Jewish settlement of Atteret, a community of about a hundred families located across a small valley.

The flag is a deliberate statement.

"So that we can show our unfriendly neighbors who were violently against us that we're here, and we're here to stay, and we're not afraid of you, we will remain here," Al-Masri says.

Nation-building
Two-thirds of the investment in this town comes from the government of Qatar’s investment fund, Al-Masri explains. The design, planning and construction are all by Palestinians, with outside help, and what appears to make him proudest of all, he says, there is no input from Israel.

He says there are more than 8,000 families interested in moving in, and the first few hundred apartments will go on the market in March, with the town’s inauguration in May. The cost of the apartments, depending on size and location, is between $75,000 and $140,000.

"This is about nation-building, this is about doing what’s right, this is my contribution that I know the best," says Al-Masri. "The human rights activists have their contribution, the [Palestinian Authority] people are building capacity and building the government, we're all together as the Palestinian people building a state."

There are two main practical problems for the new town. All the water has to be piped in, and there is no obvious source. “We are in this project, putting facts on the ground, and things will have to follow,” is Al-Masri’s answer, hoping for a miracle.

And access. The only road to Rawabi passes through what is known as Area C: that part of the West Bank that is fully controlled by Israel, administratively and militarily. It is a narrow, winding road that the Palestinians can use only with an Israeli permit, which must be renewed each year.

Al-Masri talks of a tunnel through the hills linking Rawabi with Ramallah, barely visible on the horizon. Will that ever happen? "Probably not,” he admits. "It’s a problem."

Paul Goldman / NBC News

The view to Rawabi from the nearby Jewish settlement of Atteret.

On the nearest hill, looking at Rawabi from Atteret, the manager of the Jewish settlement, Noam Aharon, agrees. "They throw stones at us," he says, talking about young Palestinians. "Just last month they smashed my windscreen. Stones can kill. And if they try to kill us, we will kill them."

"What do you think of their new town?"

"It spoils the view. But they can have it — they can do what they want, as long as we can live here in peace. If we can’t, neither can they."

Leap of faith
Building a new town out of this scraggly, dry wilderness — from where on a clear day you can see the towers of Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean Sea — is a leap of faith, which al-Al-Masri does not deny.

It is being built against the opposition of many Palestinians who see any peaceful project as a way of affirming the status quo with Israel, of denying the Palestinian struggle.

"Of course I believe, I must believe that there will be peace with Israel, and it’s a matter of time," he says. "The majority of Israeli people, at least 70 percent, want a Palestinian state. So, peace is possible. It just requires the right leaders."  

So what percentage of Palestinians want peace with Israel?

"The vast majority. I'm certain of that."

Rawabi looks much more like an Israeli middle-class town than a Palestinian city: It will have high-rises, an outside theater to seat 20,000, soccer fields and cinemas and a theater, a swimming pool, a pedestrian precinct in the city center, bars and shopping malls.

All it needs now is people, water and a larger access road.

But the statement the project makes may be as important as the facts on the ground. It says that, between a failed peace process and a possible third intifada, there is a third way: Building Palestine from the bottom up.

Martin Fletcher is the author of "The List", "Breaking News" and "Walking Israel".

Related:

'Force to be reckoned with': Israel's settlers dig in ahead of Obama visit

Israel faces European backlash over decision to expand settlements

US slams Israel's decision to expand settlements

Ahmad Gharabli / AFP - Getty Images

A Palestinian activist fixes a flag near a proposed new encampment in the West Bank on Jan 20.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank violate Palestinian human rights and must be withdrawn, United Nations investigators said Thursday — a move described by observers as "unprecedented."

An international report by the U.N. Human Rights Council said Israel is "committing serious breaches of its obligations under the right to self-determination and under humanitarian law."

All settlers must begin to withdraw from the occupied territories, the report said. It echoed the earlier claim of Palestinians that the the practices of settlers could be considered possible war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Israel, which did not cooperate with the investigation, dismissed the document as "biased" and said it would "only hamper efforts to find a sustainable solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict."

Tel Aviv-based Haaretz said the "unprecedented" conclusion was the U.N.’s "harshest condemnation of Israeli policy in West Bank since 1967."

About 250 settlements in the West Bank have been established since 1967 and they hold an estimated 520,000 settlers, the U.N. said.

Palestinians claim the settlements hamper Palestinian access to farm lands.

The report [PDF link], led by French judge Christine Chanet and summarized in a news release in Geneva on Thursday, said:

"Israel must, in compliance with article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, cease all settlement activities without preconditions. It must immediately initiate a process of withdrawal of all settlers from the OPT (occupied Palestinian territories).

These violations are all interrelated, forming part of an overall pattern of breaches that are characterised principally by the denial of the right to self-determination and systemic discrimination against the Palestinian people which occur on a daily basis.

Since 1967, Israeli governments have openly led, directly participated in, and had full control of the planning, construction, development, consolidation and encouragement of settlements, the report states."

Asma Jahangir, one of the authors of the report, said: "We are today calling on the government of Israel to ensure full accountability for all violations, put an end to the policy of impunity and to ensure justice for all victims."

Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement refuting the findings, according to the Jerusalem Post. "The Human Rights Council has sadly distinguished itself by its systematical, one-sided and biased approach towards Israel. This latest report is yet another unfortunate reminder of such approach," the newspaper quoted the ministry as saying.

Hanan Ashrawi, a top official with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, told Reuters: "This is incredible. We are extremely heartened by this principled and candid assessment of Israeli violations...This report clearly states the Israel is not just violating the 4th Geneva Convention, but places Israel in liability to the Rome Statute under the jurisdiction of the ICC."

Related:

Israel faces European backlash over decision to expand settlements

US slams Israel's decision to expand settlements

Israeli court throws out family's lawsuit over death of US activist Rachel Corrie

The White House  and the State Department said on Friday a new Israeli settlement expansion plan was "counterproductive" and could make it harder to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

"We reiterate our longstanding opposition to settlements and East Jerusalem construction and announcements," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reiterated this position, adding: "We're going to be evenhanded in our concern about any actions that are provocative, any actions that make it harder to get these two parties back to the table."

Israel plans to build thousands of new homes for its settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, an Israeli official said earlier, defying a U.N. vote that implicitly recognized Palestinian statehood there.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative government had authorized the construction of 3,000 housing units and ordered "preliminary zoning and planning work for thousands" more.

Marko Djurica / Reuters

A masked Palestinian protester uses a sling to throw a stone at Israeli security officers (unseen) during clashes at a protest against Jewish settlements, in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah on Nov. 30.

"We believe these actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations or achieve of a two state solution," Vietor said. "Direct negotiations remain our goal and we encourage all parties to take steps to make that easier to achieve."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is meeting senior Israeli and Palestinian officials Friday to try to plot a path forward.

Clinton is seeing Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. She is also talking to Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, a key mediator.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says only "face-to-face" Israeli-Palestinian negotiations can lead to progress on a two-state solution.

Israeli media, including Haaretz newspaper, said the government sought to emphasize its rejection of Thursday's upgrade by the U.N. General Assembly of the Palestinians to "non-member observer state" from "entity."

Israel and the United States had opposed the resolution, which shored up the Palestinians' claim on all of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, saying territorial sovereignty should be addressed in direct peace talks with the Jewish state.

Those negotiations have been stalled for two years, however, given Palestinian anger at continued Israeli settlement expansion. The Israelis insist they would keep West Bank settlement blocs under any final accord as well as all of Jerusalem as their capital.

That status for the holy city has never been accepted abroad, where most powers consider the settlements illegal for taking in land captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

The 193-nation General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the world body to issue what he said was its long overdue "birth certificate."

The State Department called Thursday's vote "unfortunate" and "counterproductive," and said it doesn't take the Palestinians any closer to a state.

Spokesman Earnest rejected talk of cutting U.S. aid to the Palestinians.

Jim Hollander / EPA file

A bulldozer sits at a construction site in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Pizgat Ze'ev, which many consider a sprawling Jewish settlement, on Nov. 8. Israel plans to build 3,000 new housing units for Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Fast cars go cheap as bubble bursts in 'China's Dubai'
• Leveson report on Rupert Murdoch, son: Evidence suggests 'cover-up'
• ANALYSIS: UN's Palestinian statehood vote is victory for Abbas
• Tobacco industry uses trade pacts to try to snuff out anti-smoking laws
• ANALYSIS: Crisis tests Egyptians' constitution
• Syrians risk lives in battle to protect nation's ancient sites
• Arafat's exhumation: Palestinians' desire for truth might be dashed again
• Chinese paper falls for Onion 'sexiest man alive' spoof

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Chip East / Reuters

Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has endured top Arab leaders beating a path to his rival in Gaza, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas. Hamas may not have won militarily in this month's mini-war with Israel but it paid off politically and diplomatically big-time. From pariah Hamas emerged as the power-player in Palestinian politics with a clear message: violence pays.

News analysis

Updated at 5:21 p.m. ET -- With the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approving a resolution Thursday to implicitly recognize a Palestinian state, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas can chalk up the vote as a personal triumph on two levels.

From his headquarters in Ramallah on the West Bank Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has endured top Arab leaders beating a path to his rival in Gaza, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas. Hamas may not have won militarily in this month's mini-war with Israel but it paid off big-time, politically and diplomatically. From pariah status, Hamas emerged as the power-player in Palestinian politics with a clear message: violence pays.

Abbas, who all his political life has preached non-violence, has recently seen his already marginalized position eroded further. All the more reason for him to have insisted on the United Nations vote, fending off objections and threats from Israel and Washington. So victory in the General Assembly sounds his own strong message: non-violence pays, too.

Being accepted as a non-member state, a promotion from its previous observer state, is the Palestinians' biggest political victory. It places them on the path to full recognition as a member-state of the United Nations, and allows it to join U.N. agencies such as the International Criminal Court in The Hague. 

 Arafat's body exhumed; experts to investigate if he was poisoned

The non-member observer state status could also open the way for possible war crimes charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Slideshow: Israel and Gaza: 8 days of violence

Oliver Weiken / EPA

Israel's military said it had accomplished its objectives while Hamas claimed victory after the two sides exchanged deadly airstrikes and rocket attacks for over a week.

Launch slideshow

Another personal triumph for Abbas: For the last two years Abbas has threatened to resign, claiming he wanted a quieter life. U.N. victory means he can say to his compatriots: I have fulfilled my promise and leave you now with this new status in international politics. Now you take the baton and run with it. He could bow out on top. That's what Palestinians in Ramallah today were saying could be Abbas' next step.

Gazans move quickly to rebuild bombed tunnels to bring in food, weapons

Another result of success in the United Nations has already been the united voice of Palestinians today. In a rare show of unity, Hamas has joined Fatah celebrations in the West Bank and Gaza, celebrating together this historic political moment.

These symbolic breakthroughs for Abbas and the Palestinians may not mean any change on the ground, though.

Arafat's exhumation: Palestinians' desire for truth might be dashed again

Initially Israel threatened that if Abbas did not call off the vote it would punish Abbas: withhold tax payments, possible annex the Jewish settlements on the West Bank and impose harsh sanctions. In the past few days that position has softened.

But Israel still insists, joined by Washington, that Abbas' U.N. gambit is no substitute for face-to-face negotiations. The road to peace does not go via the U.N. Plaza in New York but via Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Palestinians: Settlers threaten West Bank's centuries-old olive harvest tradition

And although this appears like a Palestinian victory, analysts here point out that whatever Abbas has achieved in the United Nations today is less than Palestinians were offered 65 years ago. Back then they were offered a state in Palestine and full membership in the United Nations. Now celebrations are about their status as a "non-member state."

Martin Fletcher is the author of "The List", "Breaking News" and "Walking Israel."

More world stories from NBC News:

• Tobacco industry uses trade pacts to try to snuff out anti-smoking laws
• Syrians risk lives in battle to protect nation's ancient sites
• An ocean away in UK, time is running out to claim $100 million lottery prize
• ANALYSIS: Egypt learns the art of politics amid protests
• Arafat's exhumation: Palestinians' desire for truth might be dashed again
• Chinese paper falls for Onion 'sexiest man alive' spoof
• ANALYSIS: Israeli defense chief quits politics — but for how long?
• Scientists rush to save manta rays, the 'pandas of the ocean'

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

A Palestinian walks past the Islamic National Bank in Gaza City after it was destroyed on Tuesday.

As Israel and Hamas exchanged more fire overnight into Tuesday, diplomats in Cairo worked furiously toward a ceasefire agreement. 

During the overnight strikes, of which there were 100, Israel Defense Forces targeted the National Islamic Bank, which Hamas uses to pay its employees, according to its blog.

It has been a lopsided fight since the violence began in southern Israel seven days ago, with more than 100 dead in Gaza and three dead in Israel.

The conflict between the two sides ratcheted up after Israel launched an air strike Wednesday that killed Ahmed al-Jabari, Hamas’s top military leader. Hamas, deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel, won parliament seats in Gaza in 2006 and took control of the area in 2007.

Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and press Hamas into stopping cross-border rocket fire that has plagued Israeli border towns for years.

But both sides are amenable to a truce and have stated their conditions: Hamas demands that Israel stop killing its leaders and asks for more freedom to travel and to import goods, NBC’s Richard Engel reported. According to al-Jazeera news service, Khaled Meshaal, a Hamas leader, said Israel must lift a six-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Israel has asked for a ceasefire, according to an Egyptian diplomat, more talks and that Hamas deliver its weapons.

Related: Hamas says land war would cost Israel PM Netanyahu the election

In Gaza, Israeli drones have targeted Hamas militants, but those militants often reside in densely populated areas, and civilians are among the casualties. Hamas will not say how many of its militants have been killed, but NBC’s Richard Engel said his count is around 40.

Slideshow: Israel, Gaza violence escalates

/

Two sides exchange deadly airstrikes, rocket attacks.

Launch slideshow

In Israel, the Iron Dome defense system has been praised for shooting down rockets launched by Hamas – 130 rockets were launched on Monday. The Iron Dome has been a huge success, reports NBC’s Martin Fletcher, but it misses two out of 10 rockets.

The Iron Dome system is also pricey -- $30 million a battery, of which Israel has five. Israel needs 13 to protect the whole country. Each rocket costs $100,000 but is viewed as well worth the cost – by saving lives, there is less pressure on the government to invade Gaza, Fletcher explained. Israel also has more time to negotiate a truce.

Egyptian diplomats and youth activists have visited Gaza in the last six days – unheard of in the past. For the newly-elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, the negotiations could determine whether Egypt can once again play a role in solving the Middle East’s big problems, reports NBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Too much democracy? Apathy triumphs in UK's latest election
• Obama's visit a sign of Myanmar's dizzying pace of change
• Key players in the Israel-Gaza cross-border conflict
• French girl found tied up - but alive - in trunk after routine traffic stop
• Mexican company Bimbo may be eyeing Twinkies

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook