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U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama began a 24-hour visit to Israel and the West Bank on Wednesday (July 23), during which he met Israeli leaders and laid a wreath at Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. A handful of supporters gathered at Obama's Jerusalem hotel to show support for the candidate and hand out leaflets. Waving a portrait of Obama, Samson Autmensevitch, a resident of Jerusalem said he thinks Barack Obama is different from McCain and "if he wins the election, highly respected and in that way can also push for Israeli interests in the world". "We would like to send a message to the American voting public and in particular the American Jewish communities that we are Israelis, we live in Israel, we are part of the Israeli society and we feel confident in Barack Obama for presidency," said Tony Jason, another Obama supporter. Obama met Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and toured Israel's Holocaust museum. "I think we had a very good conversation... We will see of course, the most important thing that we have to see is that we agree on the larger goals and this is important for the United States and for Israel regardless of who's in government there and who's in government here," Netanyahu told reporters following his meeting with Obama. "I said to the Senator one thing that the determination to prevent Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons and striking at us with its proxies and terror attacks that determination is joined together across the political divide". Following Obama's meeting with Israel's Barak at his Jerusalem hotel, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad entered the hotel to meet Israel's defence minister. Obama's visit to Israel began just hours after a Palestinian rammed a bulldozer into vehicles on a busy Jerusalem street near the hotel where the candidate will be staying. Obama will met Israel's President Shimon Peres at his formal residence before travelling to the occupied West Bank where he will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Upon arriving at the airport on Tuesday Obama condemned the bulldozer attack and vowed commitment to working with the Israeli government "to make sure these occurrences do not happen." Obama also expressed his wishes to reinforce the "historic special relationship between the United States and Israel." Speaking in the Jordanian capital Amman earlier, Obama, pledged to start working for a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from his first day in office but said it was unrealistic to expect a U.S. president to "suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace".