Netanyahu only clinched a deal for a broader-based coalition on Thursday, and Obama said any breakthrough in peace negotiations with the Palestinians would be unlikely until the Israeli government stabilized.

Obama faces the challenge of overcoming Israeli suspicions that have lingered since his early days in office when he pressed Netanyahu for a freeze on settlement expansion and launched a short-lived outreach to Tehran, Israel's arch-foe.

Touching on the long-stalled peace process with the Palestinians, Obama said his "goal on this trip is to listen" during meetings with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday and with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Thursday. He will see Jordan's King Abdullah in Amman on Friday.

Taking stock

Obama stopped short of calling for a freeze in settlement building in the occupied West Bank, but suggested a change in Israel's policy would empower moderate Palestinian leaders.

"It's a matter of both parties coming together and recognizing that their futures in some ways are going to be inextricably linked and that Israel will be safer, more secure, more prosperous if the issue can be resolved," he said.

Previewing Obama's trip, U.S. deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters the president would not bring any "specific" new peace proposals but would use the opportunity to "take stock" of the prospects for future efforts. Obama's first-term peace push broke down in 2010 amid mutual acrimony.

In an appeal to the Israeli people, Obama said he regretted that he would not have an opportunity to walk the streets. "Sometimes I have this fantasy that I can put on a disguise, wear a fake moustache, and I could wander through Tel Aviv, go to a bar, and you know have a conversation there," he said.

Obama will see the Dead Sea scrolls in Jerusalem and a high-tech exhibit in the Israel Museum.

He will lay wreaths at the graves of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern-day Zionism, and assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and visit Yad Vashem, the memorial to six million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust. He will also visit the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.