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Speaking before their session, Obama said he was aiming to ascertain the prospects for peace in the region as he prepares to end his presidency.

"Our hope will be that in these conversations we get the sense of how Israel sees the next few years, what the opportunities are and what the challenges are in order to ensure we keep alive the possibility of a stable, secure Israel at peace with its neighbors," Obama said. "These are challenging times. One thing that I would say about Prime Minister Netanyahu is that he is always very candid with us."

That candor has become a hallmark of the relationship between Obama and his Israeli counterpart, whom the White House has accused of being less-than-diplomatic in expressing his opposition to US policies like the nuclear agreement with Iran. Obama's 30-minute meeting Wednesday with Netanyahu was likely to be their final opportunity for face-to-face consultations before a new president enters the Oval Office in January.

Obama is intent on conferring solid ties with Israel upon his successor, despite the personal animus that developed between him and Netanyahu, as he looks to boost the relationship during the homestretch of a presidential campaign in which he hopes to see Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton prevail.

Obama took a step toward solidifying the alliance this month by completing a long-term, $38 billion security aid package for Israel, the largest such agreement ever for a US ally.

The aid, Obama said, "allows the kind of certainty in a moment where there's enormous uncertainty in the region. It is a very difficult and dangerous time in the Middle East and we want to make sure Israel has full capabilities to keep the Israeli people safe."

In their talks, Obama said he and his Israeli counterpart would discuss challenges in Syria, and said he would get Netanyahu's assessment of conditions in Israel and the West Bank.

"Clearly there is great danger of not just terrorism but also flare-ups of violence," he said. "We do have concerns about settlement activity as well."

Obama hopes to take steps in his final days in office to promote renewed talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians on peace, though his previous efforts toward reconciliation in the region have fallen short.

"My hope is we can continue to be an effective partner in Israel in finding a path to peace," Obama said.

But the White House remains opposed to Israel's expanded settlement activity in the West Bank, and has expressed disappointment at Netanyahu's occasional skepticism about the viability of a two-state solution in the region.

In the meeting Wednesday Obama raised "profound US concerns about the corrosive effect that that is having on the prospects of two states."

"They've never papered over their differences," another senior administration official said of Obama and Netanyahu.

The passing remark was in stark comparison to the large amounts of time Obama spent on the issue during addresses to the UN earlier in his tenure. The shift reflected the now-frozen peace negotiations, which moved in spurts during Obama's presidency but never materialized into a workable solution.

The White House has conceded that talks aren't likely to resume while Obama remains in office but has remained open to the possibility the President could take steps in the next months to ramp up pressure on both sides to work toward a two-state solution.

"With respect to Middle East peace, I wouldn't rule out the President taking any particular step on the issue," Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said Tuesday. "What I would say is his test has always been, can I make a positive difference by engaging on the Israeli-Palestinian issue? We've tried multiple tactics, none of them have succeeded, given the fact that the parties themselves have been unable to come together."

Obama's talks with Netanyahu Wednesday capped a tumultuous personal history, though both displayed a businesslike camaraderie during their photo-op.

Netanyahu returned to Washington last November in an attempt to repair the relationship, meeting with Obama in the Oval Office and addressing both the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the left-leaning Center for American Progress, the think tank with ties to Clinton.

Netanyahu on Wednesday invited Obama for a round of golf in Israel once he departs office in January, saying warmly that Obama's "influential voice" on international politics would remain a force "for many decades."

"Our alliance has grown decade after decade, through successive presidents, bipartisan Congresses and with the overwhelming support of the American people," he said. "It is an unbreakable bond."

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President Obama conceded Tuesday that the United States and other world powers have limited ability to solve the most profound challenges facing the world, while calling for a course correction for globalization to ensure that nations dont retreat into a more sharply divided world.

We are seeing the same forces of global integration that have made us interdependent also expose deep fault lines in the existing international order,Mr.Obama said, in his final speech to the U.N. General Assembly.In order to move forward..., the president said,we do have to acknowledge that the existing path to global integration requires a course correction.

Heacknowledged that the extremist and sectarian violence wreaking havoc in the Middle East and elsewhere will not be quickly reversed. Still, he stuck faithfully to his insistence that diplomatic efforts and not military solutions are the key to resolving Syrias civil war and other conflicts.

If we are honest, we know that no external power is going to be able to force different religious communities or ethnic communities to co-exist for long, Mr.Obama said. Until basic questions are answered about how communities co-exist, the embers of extremism will continue to burn. Countless human beings will suffer.

U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., September 20, 2016.

REUTERS/Mike Segar - RTSOLRV

In a less-than-subtle jab at Donald Trump, the Republican running to replace him, the presidentsaid, The world is too small for us to simply be able to build a wall and prevent (extremism) from affecting our own societies.

The president was unabashed in his critique of Russia as he laid out his diagnosis of the worlds ills. Mr.Obamas longstanding differences with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his actions in Ukraine have accompanied intense disagreement over Syrias future and a series of failed attempts by Russia and the U.S. to resolve the civil war there together.

In a world that left the age of empire behind, we see Russia attempting to recover lost glory through force, Mr.Obama said.

The tough talk about Russia illustrated how little progress has been made in reconciling the diverging interests among the two powers that has allowed the Syria crisis to continue to fester. A year ago, Mr.Obama stood at the same podium and declared anew that Syrian President Bashar Assad must leave power, while Putin gave a dueling speech warning it would be a mistake to abandon Assad.

In the year since, Moscows leverage in the conflict has strengthened significantly. Russias military intervention in Syria has helped bolster Assads standing without pulling it into the military quagmire that Mr.Obama had predicted.

The presidentsought to use his last appearance before the global body to define how his leadership -- as well that ofpast presidents --had put the world on a better trajectory..

I believe America has been a rare superpower in human history insofar as it has been willing to think beyond narrow self-interest; that while weve made our share of mistakes over these last 25 years -- and Ive acknowledged some -- we have strived, sometimes at great sacrifice, to align better our actions with our ideals, he said.And as a consequence, I believe we have been a force for good.

At the heart of that approach, the presidentsaid, is the notion that the biggest conflicts are best solved when nations cooperate rather than tackle them individually, adding that he knows we cant do this alone. Its a theme that Democrat Hillary Clinton has put at the forefront of her campaign for president,casting herself as thenatural continuation of Mr. Obamas legacy.In anapparent reference to Trump, Mr.Obama bemoaned how terrorist networks had spread their ideology on social media, spurring anger toward innocent immigrants and Muslims.

Working together, he told the leaders, meansaccepting some constraints.

Sometimes Im criticized in my own country for professing a belief in international norms and multilateral institutions, Mr. Obama said.But I am convinced that in the long run, giving up some freedom of action -- not giving up our ability to protect ourselves or pursue our core interests, but binding ourselves to international rules over the long term -- enhances our security.

He pointed to Iran as a positive example of thisfor having accepted constraints on its nuclear ambitions in order to enhance its ability to work with other nations.

Mr.Obama saidthat the world has become safer and more prosperous -- the integration of the global economy has made life better for billions, he pointed out. Butat the same time,nations are struggling with a devastating refugee crisis, terrorism and a breakdown in basic order in the Middle East. He said governing had become more difficult as people lose faith in public institutions and tensions among nations spiral out of control more rapidly.

This is the paradox that defines the world today, the presidentsaid. We must go forward, and not backward. That will involve continuing the pushto make the global economy work better -- not just for those at the top.

While open markets, capitalism have raised standards of living around the globe, Mr. Obama lamented, globalization, combined with rapid progress and technology has also weakened the position of workers and their ability to secure a decent wage.

The president cited his administrations outreach to former adversaries Cuba and Myanmar as key examples of progress, along with global cooperation to cut emissions blamed for global warming. At the same time, he said he sought not to whitewash challenges across the globe, some of which he attributed to deepening anxieties about the profound shifts inflicted by technology and growing international interdependence.

The president also recalled the words of Martin Luther King, who wrote,Human progress never rolls on the wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and he exhorted the U.N. to join him in being co-workers with god. Our identities do not have to be defined by putting someone else down, but can be enhanced by lifting somebody else up, he said.They dont have to be defined in opposition to others, but rather by a belief in liberty and equality and justice and fairness.

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Obama to deliver his final speech to the UN - CBS News

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama said Saturday night he will take it as a "personal insult" if the African-American community fails to turn out for the presidential election and encouraged black voters to support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Obama delivered his final keynote address to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, symbolically passing the torch to the person he hopes will succeed him next year. Clinton, his former secretary of state, was honored for becoming the first female presidential nominee of a major party.

Obama said his name may not be on the ballot, but issues of importance to the black community were, including justice, good schools and ending mass incarceration.

"I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election," Obama said with a stern look and booming passion. "You want to give me a good send-off, go vote."

In her own pitch to African-Americans at the same dinner, Clinton implored the crowd to help protect Obama's legacy, warning of a "dangerous and divisive vision" that could come from Republican opponent Donald Trump.

Obama joked about the "birther" issue long promoted and now dismissed by Trump, telling his audience that there's an extra spring in his step now that the "whole birther thing is over." But his main message was about voter turnout among blacks.

He turned quite serious when speaking about voting. He said Republicans have actively added barriers to voting by closing polling places mostly in minority communities, cutting early voting and imposing more voter ID requirements. He called the efforts a national scandal, but even if all restrictions on voting were eliminated, African-Americans would still have one of the lowest voting rates.

"That's not good. That is on us," Obama said. He then told the crowd if they wanted to give Michelle Obama and him a good send-off, "don't just watch us walk off into the sunset, now. Get people registered to vote."

Obama also sought to blunt Trump's recent efforts to reach out to black voters, saying Trump at one point in the race had said there's never been a worse time to be a black person.

"I mean, he missed that whole civics lesson about slavery and Jim Crow, but we've got a museum for him to visit," Obama said, a reference to next week's opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. "We will educate him."

Obama may have been referring to an ABC interview with Trump in 2015 when he asserted the nation's first black president had done "nothing" for African-Americans. "They are worse now than just about ever," he said.

Clinton gave a shorter address. She did not mention Trump by name but showered the president with praise and said the upcoming election would be a pivotal choice for the country.

"It's not about golf course promotions or birth certificates. It comes down to who will fight for the forgotten, who will invest in our children and who will really have your back in the White House," Clinton said.

"We need ideas not insults, real plans to help struggling Americans in communities that have been left out and left behind, not prejudice and paranoia. We can't let Barack Obama's legacy fall into the hands of someone who doesn't understand that, whose dangerous and divisive vision for our country will drag us backwards," she said.

The gala featuring nearly four dozen black members of Congress underscored Clinton's need for a large turnout of black voters against Trump. In a tight presidential race, Clinton is hoping that African-Americans turn out like they did for Obama's two victories when they comprised 13 percent of the electorate.

Black voters were among Clinton's most loyal supporters during the Democratic primaries, powering her to a series of wins in the South that helped her build a delegate lead against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The dinner included warnings about a Trump presidency. Retiring Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who was honored for his service, said of the GOP nominee, "His hatred and his bigotry has pulled the rug off and the sheet off the Republican Party so we can see it for what it is."

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Obama says it's a 'personal insult' if black voters don't ...

Donald Trump tried to tamp down a newly revived campaign dust-up Friday over his views on President Obamas birthplace, declaring the president was born in the United States period after declining to make that statement earlier this week.

The Republican presidential nominee also tried to blame Hillary Clinton for starting the controversy back in 2008, which her team denies. He cast his remarks as a bid to put the issue to rest once and for all, at a time when his poll numbers are rising.

Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it, Trump said in Washington, D.C. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.

He spoke at his new Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., a visit that began with lengthy remarks from military supporters and veterans. He briefly addressed the birther issue at the end.

The statement comes after Trumps response on the matter in an interview Wednesday revived the issue. In the interview withThe Washington Post, Trump was asked whether he believed Obama was born in the U.S. "I'll answer that question at the right time," Trump told the paper. "I just don't want to answer it yet."

Trumps campaign spokesman, trying to calm the waters, said overnight the Republican candidate now believes Obama was born in the U.S. Campaign spokesman Jason Miller said Trump "did a great service to the country" by bringing closure to the debate.

"In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate," Miller said.

But the Clinton campaign seized on Trumps reluctance to address the issue in his Post interview.

Speaking shortly before Trump across town at the Black Women's Agenda Symposium, Clinton said Friday the Republican nominee was feeding into the bigotry and bias that lurks in our country and should apologize.

Barack Obama was born in America, she said. Donald Trump owes him and the American people an apology.

Her campaign called his Friday comments "disgraceful."

The dust-up comes as Trump gains on Clinton in national and battleground state polls, even surpassing her in some states.

A new Fox News poll shows Clinton topping Trump by just one point among likely voters in the four-way ballot nationally.

In the head-to-head matchup, Trumps up by one point.

Both candidates were fundraising Friday after events in Washington. Clinton has endured a rough week on the campaign trail, after criticizing some Trump supporters last Friday as "deplorables" and then having to take time off from the campaign due to a bout of pnemonia.

She used the birther issue to try and go back on offense.

While Obama was born in Hawaii, Trump several years ago was a key figure in stoking the so-called "birther" controversy. Critics saw it as an attempt to delegitimize the nations first black president.

Trump has said repeatedly during the campaign that he no longer talks about the "birther" issue.

The Trump campaigns statement late Thursday claimed that Clinton launched the birther movement during her unsuccessful primary run against Obama in 2008.

"Hillary Clinton's campaign first raised this issue to smear then-candidate Barack Obama in her very nasty, failed 2008 campaign for President," the statement said. "This type of vicious and conniving behavior is straight from the Clinton Playbook. As usual, however, Hillary Clinton was too weak to get an answer."

Clinton has long denied the claim, and fact-checkers previously have found no public evidence that she or her campaign directly pushed the issue. Rather, Trumps comments appear to refer to reports that Clinton supporters circulated an email during the bitter 2008 primary race questioning Obamas citizenship.

Yet former McClatchy D.C. bureau chief James Asher said on Twitter Friday that Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal in fact told me in person that Obama was born in Kenya.

Obama had released a standard short form of his birth certificate before the 2008 presidential election. Anyone who wants a copy of the more detailed, long-form document must submit a waiver request, and have that request approved by Hawaii's health department.

In 2011, amid persistent questions from Trump about his birthplace, Obama submitted a waiver request. He dispatched his personal lawyer to Hawaii to pick up copies and carry the documents back to Washington on a plane.

The form said Obama was born at 7:24 p.m. on Aug. 4, 1961, at Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu. It is signed by the delivery doctor, Obama's mother and the local registrar.

At the White House on Friday, Obama declined to comment at length on the issue, saying hes got other business to attend to and is confident about where he was born.

Fox News Nicholas Kalman and Tamara Gitt and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Obama didn't directly address Hillary Clinton's bout with pneumonia, which has kept her housebound as the campaign enters its final stretch. But he did issue a warning for anyone who's questioning the Democratic candidate's ability to perform the job.

"You want to debate who's more fit to be president? One candidate has traveled to more countries than any other secretary of state has. Has more qualifications than any candidate in history. And the other who isn't fit in any way shape or form to represent this country abroad or to be its commander in chief," Obama said at roaring campaign rally in Philadelphia.

He dismissed questions about Clinton's transparency, which arose after she kept quiet her pneumonia diagnosis for several days. Instead, he ripped into Trump's decision to withhold his tax returns, a historic break from precedent.

"You want to debate transparency? You've got one candidate in this race who's released decades' worth of her tax returns. The other candidate is the first in decades who refuses to release any at all," Obama said.

For Obama, Tuesday's event was a return to the rollicking campaign events that thrust him into the White House eight years ago, and won him reelection in 2012. He exclaimed as he took the stage here it was "good to be back on the campaign trail," a sentiment that was returned by loud cheers by the crowd of hundreds.

"Can I just say I am really into electing Hillary Clinton?" Obama told the crowd, which enthusiastically greeted him. "This is not me just going through the motions here. I really, really, really want to elect Hillary Clinton."

Obama is just one of a cavalry of top White House Democrats -- also including First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden -- who are arguing Clinton's case this week as the Democratic nominee herself is convalescing from pneumonia and absent from the trail.

The timing is opportune for a campaign eager both to spotlight its most popular surrogates and to move past a rocky patch. While Obama's Philadelphia stop was planned well ahead of Clinton's declaration that half of her rival's supporters were "deplorable" and new worries about her transparency, the campaign hopes the President's rally can at least provide a new storyline.

But even an appearance from Obama -- whose approval rating reached a nearly eight-year high of 58% in an ABC/Washington Post poll Monday -- won't necessarily cure all of Clinton's woes as the campaign enters its busiest stretch. The White House Monday said Obama would not be relegated to "damage control" for Clinton's stumbles, and he declined to address either the "deplorable" dust-up or her illness directly.

Instead, Obama leaned hard into his criticisms of Trump, using his stature as commander in chief to disqualify the Republican candidate.

"You've got the Donald, who just last week went on Russian television to talk down our military and curry favor with Vladimir Putin," Obama said, referring to an interview appearance on RT. "He loves this guy! Think about what's happened in the Republican Party," Obama said. "They used to be opposed to Russia and authoritarianism and fighting for freedom. Now their nominee is out there praising a guy, saying he's a strong leader, because he invades smaller countries, jails his opponents."

"This isn't Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party," Obama added later. "This is a dark, pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against one another, where we turn against the world. They aren't offering serious solutions, they are fanning resentment, and hate. That is not the America I know."

Michelle Obama is also stumping for Clinton this week. The first lady makes her first campaign appearance for the Democratic nominee on Friday, promoting voter registration in Northern Virginia. Loathe to engage directly in bitter partisan politics, the first lady is more likely to spell out a more affirmative case for Clinton, according to aides.

Biden, who talked up Clinton during a stop Monday in Charlotte, was more candid in his assessments, suggesting the candidate gets a "bum rap" when he was asked about her remarks casting some of Trump's supporters as deplorable.

"For every time she will say something where she says, 'Well, maybe I should have said something different,' think if they held Trump to that standard," Biden said. "He'd be in trouble. He is in trouble."

Even as Clinton is increasingly relying on Obama to carry her message to young and minority voters, the demands on the President's time have largely forestalled an aggressive campaign schedule thus far.

Tuesday's event in Philadelphia is only Obama's second campaign stop for Clinton, after a joint appearance in Charlotte in July. Since then, Obama has helped raised money from Democratic donors, including during his vacation on Martha's Vineyard last month, but he hasn't headlined another rally until now.

White House officials point to a largely inflexible schedule of presidential commitments this month as a barrier to more frequent campaigning. While past presidents have faced similar obligations in the waning days of their tenures, Obama is more popular -- and thus in higher demand as a campaigner than his most recent predecessors.

In August, Obama's aides made a day-by-day assessment of the President's commitments until election day, discovering few moments in September that would allow for rallies in key battleground states on behalf of Clinton.

Obama on Friday concluded a week-long swing through Asia, with stops on the front end in Nevada, Hawaii and Midway Island meant to burnish his environmental legacy.

Even Tuesday's rally was restricted to a relatively close-by location. Obama had business at the White House Monday evening when he met with congressional leaders, and is due to meet Burmese State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Obama's four-day obligation at the United Nations General Assembly next week makes adding a campaign stop difficult before the end of the month. And while the campaign may arise implicitly during Obama's final address to the gathering of world leaders -- he's expected to recap eight years of foreign policy, providing a contrast to Trump's proposals -- it's hardly the setting for a fiery political throw-down.

Even in October, when the race will enter its frenzied sprint, the demands of the presidency mean an all-out, every-day-on-the-trail presence for Obama is unrealistic. Already the President's schedule is filling up. The White House announced Monday that Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi would visit on October 18, a day-long affair that will stretch into a late State Dinner. A government funding battle also seems likely to occupy the President's time this month.

Many of the states that officials say Obama will target -- including Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Michigan -- are easily accessible in a single day-trip on Air Force One, but would leave few moments for other business at the White House.

Given Obama's sway among young and minority voters -- populations historically difficult to get to the polls -- there is pressure for the President to hit many states before their voting registration deadline passes. In Florida, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, that means showing up before October 11.

"I think what is clear is that the President does have a lot of influence over a large number of voters that haven't previously been regularly engaged in politics," Earnest said Monday, adding the Clinton campaign is "hoping that the President will be helpful in making the case on their behalf to motivate voters to get registered and to participate on Election Day."

CNN's Naomi Lim contributed to this report.

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