Delegates at AIPAC conference
Delegates at AIPAC conferenceHezki Ezra

More than 40 well known American Jewish public figures and philanthropists sent a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Sunday in which they implored him not to approve the judicial report that says Jews may settle freely in Judea and Samaria.

"As strong advocates for Israel’s security and well-being as a Jewish and democratic state, we are deeply concerned about the recent findings of government commission led by Supreme Court Justice (Ret.) Edmond Levy,” the letter said.

"We fear that this report, if approved, will place the two-state solution, and the prestige of Israel as a democratic member of the international community, in peril.”

The letter's signatories include philanthropists Charles Bronfman and Lester Crown; Marvin Lender, Former National Chairman of UJA; Rabbi Daniel Gordis, President of the Shalem Center; Deborah Lipstadt, an expert on Holocaust studies at Emory University; Bernard Nussbaum, former White House Counsel; Thomas Dine, a former executive director of AIPAC; E. Robert Goodkind, a former president of the American Jewish Committee; Richard Pearlstone, former chairman of the Jewish Agency; and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

The Levy Committee's report determines that Israel cannot be characterized as "an occupier" of Judea and Samaria by definition because the territory never legally belonged to Jordan before Israel regained it in 1967.

The letter was initiated by the Israel Policy Forum (IPF), which was attacked in 2007 by veteran Jewish leader and columnist Isi Liebler as a group that "delegitimizes" Israeli policies.

IPF president Seymour Reich and chairman Marvin Lender replied to Liebler's accusations by writing: "If we were 'Jews against Zion' (Leibler's repugnant description), would Rabin, Sharon, Peres, Netanyahu, Barak, Olmert, Livni, Ramon (to name just a few Israeli leaders, current and past) speak at IPF events or meet with IPF leaders? We think not."