[IsraelTimes] Letter signed by key donors to Israel demand premier ‘enforce the law in the West Bank’ and commit to rejecting use of ‘starvation or expulsion as weapons of war’
Nearly 2,000 prominent Jews around the United States and United Kingdom — and counting — have signed a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to end the war in Gaza.
Coming amid a flurry of open statements to similar effect, the letter is notable because it has garnered signatures from influential Jewish voices with an extensive track record of donations to Israel, some of whom have not previously weighed in publicly on the nearly two-year-old war, which was sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel.
Among the signatories are Charles Bronfman, the Jewish Canadian-American billionaire philanthropist; the philanthropist Marcia Riklis; Dame Vivien Duffield, chairman of the Clore Foundation; and Trevor Chinn, the president of United Jewish Israel Appeal, a leading British Jewish charity that funds initiatives in Israel.
The letter is an initiative of a new liberal Zionist network called The London Initiative, founded earlier this year to “strengthen Israeli democracy, advance a fairer shared future for all citizens of Israel, revive hope in the prospects of achieving secure peace, and improve relations between all Israelis and world Jewry.”
The initiative is helmed by Mick Davis, a former CEO of the British Conservative Party, and Mike Prashker, the founder of Merchavim: The Institute for the Advancement of Shared Citizenship, in an effort to “to reverse the direction” of the State of Israel, Prashker, who lives in Israel, told eJewish Philanthropy at the time of the launch.
The letter, titled “A protest letter to PM Netanyahu from world Jewry,” outlines four requests for Netanyahu: to “permanently restore and enable the provision of food and humanitarian aid to the Gazan population; end the war; enforce the law in the West Bank; and commit that neither you nor any member of your government will again advocate policies of starvation or expulsion as weapons of war.”
The support for the letter underscores growing criticism of the Israeli government from Jewish communities in recent weeks amid allegations of widespread starvation in Gaza and reported plans by Netanyahu to further occupy the Palestinian enclave.
It focuses primarily on the harm to Israel and Jews caused by Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war and handling of widening violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.
“We are under no illusions about the actions and intentions of Hamas, other extremist forces and the states that support them, and we acknowledge the painful dilemmas any Israeli government would face in addressing these threats,” the letter reads. “Yet we also cannot escape the fact that the policies and rhetoric of the government you lead are doing lasting damage to Israel, its standing in the world and the prospects of secure peace for all Israelis and Palestinians.”
It continues: “This has severe consequences for Israel but also for the wellbeing, security and unity of Jewish communities around the world.”
Some of the letter’s signatories also signed onto a letter in early 2023 urging a halt to Netanyahu’s efforts to overhaul Israel’s judicial system, which they said would erode democracy in a state they had invested billions of dollars to strengthen.
Menachem Begin responded to similar advice back in 1981:
THIS is former PM Menachem Begin's sharp response to Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's remark on a Palestinian Arab state in 1981. THIS is leadership.
Posted by trailing wife 2025-08-07 2025-08-07 03:15||
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#1 So what? Who cares? If a bunch of foreigners sign a letter asking us to do..something? Anything?
Do we pay attention to them?
Joe Biden was a Catholic,if he got a letter from the Pope is he obligated to do what His Eminence says?
Hell no!
America first!
Posted by Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435 2025-08-07 06:36||
2025-08-07 06:36||
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#2 I, too, call on Netanyahu to end the conflict. Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the robot dogs of war. I realize this is the Middle East where tribal conflict has been a popular sport since Jesus was a kid, but this has gone on long enough.
#3 Gaza is not the only place with Jewish hostages.
Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-08-07 09:05||
2025-08-07 09:05||
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#4
Given 23,000+ Truck loads of Food and Supplies, have been officially verified as brought and been delivered to the designated locations in GAZA by several high level non-Israeli Gov agencies.
So I have to ask, can the 2,000 "claiming to be" Jewish Elite do basic math, or just want to run their mouths.
Basic logic dictates. If the food and supplies are not reaching the intended needy people despite being delivered. Then someone on that end is to blame?
Let me make a wild ass guess here!
Maybe HAMAS and various Gazans and/or other terrorists groups.
So will the IDF have to personally spoon-feed each Gaza refugee to make the 2000 happy? Or will the 2000 then just complain about the size of the spoon next?
#5 a lot of the signatories run NGOs that donate $ to charities in Israel - so it does matter
having said that I think a lot of the signatories have unconsciously been swayed by the bucketful of blood libels that Hamas and its auxiliaries have concocted. they may think,'well this isn't completely true but it must be based on something' or possibly they are just weak minded fools
Posted by Lord Garth 2025-08-07 12:43||
2025-08-07 12:43||
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