JERUSALEM, Israel -- President Obama is in Israel Wednesday on his first visit to the country since first taking the oath of office four years ago. Air Force One touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport at about 6:20 a.m.

The visit is dubbed "Unbreakable Alliance." Some have called it a charm offensive. According to polls, many Israelis don't trust Obama. But Obama said it's his chance to connect with the Israeli people.

"It could just be for the better to come and feel how Israel really is and to be friends with us," one Israeli named Dina told CBN News.

Israeli Shimon Wallace said the president should stay home if he's come to dictate to Israel.

"If he thinks he's going to come here and dictate to us how we should go about security issues and peace with the Palestinians, stay at home," Wallace said.

Levona, another Israeli, said, "I'm excited, but I don't have a ticket to see him."

But for many analysts, the president's timing seems a bit odd.

"There's no Israeli government really that's organized itself and has its policies ready and no Palestinian leadership representing the Palestinians," said former Ambassador Alan Baker, director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

With Obama arriving less than a week before Passover, they liken it to Netanyahu visiting the U.S. on Christmas Eve.

"But because he's announced that he's coming and Israel and the U.S. are the best of friends and so he'll be very welcome," Baker said.

From the start, both Israel and the United States downplayed any idea of major breakthroughs.

"The president is not coming as previous presidents have either to lobby for a specific policy in the way that only U.S. presidents can do or to take a victory lap upon the success of a policy," Ed Rettig, American Jewish Committee director of Israel and Middle East policies, said.

Still there's need for serious discussion.

"I think that Iran is probably the biggest issue and I presume Obama will say the same things he's been saying," Baker said.

Then there's the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

President Obama is scheduled to visit Palestinian Authority-controlled Ramallah on Thursday.

Then on Friday, he visits the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.  There Palestinians showed their disappointment with the president's first term by trashing a giant poster of Obama on Tuesday.

"He doesn't do anything for the Palestinian people. He just talks and doesn't do anything," a Palestinian named Rashid said.

Rana, another Palestinian, echoed his sentiments.
 
"I think there is no help from Obama to our situation in Palestine because they always talk and there is no result," she said.

But another resident named Daoud said there's hope.

"We got hope, always we got hope in the trip," he said.

One analyst said it may just turn out that the most important part of the visit is that it happened.

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