One of the officials said the main purpose of the meeting was to start a regional peace process that Netanyahu said he wanted. "We saw it as building on, or updating, but certainly not superseding" the 2002 Arab initiative, one of the officials said. The officials said opposition inside Netanyahu's hard-line government, which is dominated by nationalists opposed to Palestinian independence, presented a formidable obstacle. Trump asked Netanyahu to "hold off" on Jewish settlement construction in occupied territories the Palestinians claim for a future state. Lieberman, the Israeli defense minister, said that for him a Palestinian state remains the preferred outcome -- and it should come through the type of regional structure Netanyahu reportedly rejected.

Source: Fox News February 19, 2017 20:54 UTC