[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

He added that "it's important to speak carefully, because one Jewish leader
shouldn't say things that will be contradicted by another. It's important
not to appear divided."

Is this why ZOA and Young Israel were apparently not included? (Orthodox
Union has taken a considerably more parve stance).]

Obama to meet Jewish leaders amid concerns over criticism
Haviv Rettig Gur , THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 13, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443789737&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

US President Barack Obama will meet on Monday with over a dozen heads of
influential American Jewish organizations and is expected to respond to
concerns that the White House is pressuring Israel over West Bank
settlements while it is soft-pedaling with some of Israel's worst enemies.

"American Jews more or less agree with the president on settlements, but
it's the focus on criticizing Israel that's disconcerting," said an
organization leader who will be attending the meeting.

"There's no single monolithic voice speaking for American Jewry," said
another participating leader. "When both the Orthodox Union and [American
Friends of] Peace Now are in the room, you won't get a unified opinion."

He added that "it's important to speak carefully, because one Jewish leader
shouldn't say things that will be contradicted by another. It's important
not to appear divided."

The meeting, under the aegis of the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, will include representatives of the Orthodox,
Conservative and Reform religious streams, and major groups such as AIPAC,
the American Jewish Committee, ADL and Hadassah.

While the Jewish leaders are expected to raise many domestic issues - from
welfare reform to security concerns for Jewish institutions - the question
on everybody's mind will be Obama's Middle East policy, participants said.
Most of the heads and membership of the major organizations are Democrats
who broadly support the current administration - another cause for
discomfort.

These concerns have been discussed, though quietly, ever since Obama's June
4 speech to the Muslim world.

In the wake of that speech, Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president
of the Conference of Presidents, was quoted as expressing "concern" over the
US president's seeming justification of Israel's founding on the Jews'
suffering during the Holocaust. Hoenlein has claimed he was misquoted in
those comments, but he seems to share the concerns of other Jewish leaders
that some of the language coming from the administration shows a lack of
understanding of the mainstream Jewish perspective on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Similarly, New York Jewish Week editor Gary Rosenblatt recently quoted AJC
executive director David Harris as saying that "[I'm] hearing a growing
number of questions and concerns about the US-Israel relationship, and a
sense that the Obama administration's response to the Iran crisis was slower
than it should have been."

The Monday meeting is off-record and was intended to be kept secret.

Meanwhile, Obama used a Sky News interview aired Sunday to express concern
over Syria.

There are "aspects of Syrian behavior that trouble us," he said in response
to the interviewer's question on whether he would accept an invitation for
direct talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

He also noted that there were already "some diplomatic contacts between the
United States and Syria," and said his administration believed there was "a
way that Syria can be much more constructive on a whole host of these
issues."

Obama said he was "a believer in engagement, and my hope is that we can
continue to see progress on that front."

In late June, the US State Department praised Syria for its "constructive
role to promote peace and stability" as it announced plans to return an
ambassador to Damascus after a four-year absence.

Also Sunday, in a CNN interview that aired after the president's return from
Ghana, Obama spoke about slavery and the Holocaust, saying they were
terrible chapters in history that should not be ignored. He said slavery's
part in US history should be taught in a meaningful way and that the two
events must never be forgotten.

The Ghana visit was the first trip to sub-Saharan Africa by America's first
black president.

Obama and his family visited a West African castle where traders once
shipped slaves to the New World.

The CNN interview was an excerpt of an interview conducted on Saturday for
CNN's Anderson Cooper: 360.

Jerusalem Post staff and AP contributed to this report.