Obama, who shuttled between morning meetings at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Wearing a white yarmulke, he rekindled a flame and paused for a few moments of quiet reflection as he laid a wreath on a tomb that contains ashes from Nazi extermination camps.
"At a time of great peril and promise, war and strife, we are blessed to have such a powerful reminder of man's potential for great evil, but also our capacity to rise from tragedy and remake our world," Obama said after visiting the memorial. "Let our children come here, and know this history, so they can add their voices to proclaim "never again. "And may we remember those who perished, not only as victims but also as individuals who hoped and loved and dreamed like us, and who have become symbols of the human spirit."
Obama later met with Abbas and the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, for one hour at the Mukata, the Palestinian president's compound in Ramallah.
