WASHINGTON — The leading Republican candidates drew enthusiastic applause from Republican Jewish leaders here on Wednesday after accusing President Obama of falling short in his support of Israel while coddling its adversaries. But it remained to be seen how far those arguments will carry them, especially given the candidates’ rightward tilt on other issues that have traditionally been important to American Jews.

The speeches to the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Candidates Forum suggested that the candidates would differ substantially from previous Democratic and Republican administrations on critical elements of the Middle East peace process. Some indicated they would put less pressure on Israel on issues like the contours of an independent Palestinian state.

Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, criticized a line of public discussion — which he blamed on the Obama administration — that he said holds that “it’s always Israel’s fault no matter how bad the other side is.” This, he added to sustained applause, “has to stop.”

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, said the White House had “chastened” Israel while pushing an appeasement strategy, a pointed allusion before a Jewish audience that harked back to the diplomacy that Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister, pursued in the 1930s with Hitler.