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Jewish leaders share praise, concerns with Obama

July 13, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Top Jewish organizational leaders expressed support for President Obama's Middle East peace strategies at a White House meeting but also had qualms.

Obama must do a better job of showing he expected hard work from all sides, not just Israel, the leaders said following Monday's meeting.

Sixteen leaders from 14 groups participated in the meeting, which comes after weeks of tense exchanges with Israel over freezing settlement building and expressions of "concern" by some U.S. Jewish leaders over the fallout.

"The view was expressed among the organizations at a minimum there was concern about an imbalance in pressures placed on Israel as opposed to on the Palestinians and Arab states," Alan Solow, the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told JTA. "The president indicated he had a sensitivity to the perception of that imbalance and had to work harder to correct that perception."

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