Ben-Gurion's Warning

Two thousand and eighteen will undoubtedly be a pivotal year for the State of Israel. In the coming weeks, President Donald Trump – the first American president to not only recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, but also relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – will put forth a peace proposal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Few countries have paid a greater price for the right to celebrate its 70th anniversary, than Israel. This week, over 8 million Israelis will pause from their pressure-cooker lives to reflect on their nation's remarkable rebirth. But every citizen knows that the beginning of Israel's eighth decade finds the Jewish state still surrounded by implacable foes like Hezbollah, Syria and an Iranian regime committed to destroying Israel. Hamas is committed to the same genocidal end to its Jewish neighbors and, like Hezbollah, continues to amass arsenals of missiles. And, while Israel celebrates, it must also prepare for retaliatory strikes from Iran after taking out an airbase that Iran built and operated in Syria for the sole purpose of threatening Israel.

Exactly who is Israel's partner for peace? The Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, has done nothing to change its children's curriculum. It names schools and sports tournaments in honor of terrorist murderers, which serves to nurture another generation of future martyrs who would rather die than accept Israel's legitimate existence. Israelis continue in a state of bemusement that, even after defending their homes and lives in five wars and suffering tens of thousands of terrorists' attacks, the Middle East's only democracy continues to endure media portrayal as a racist bully. Israel still garners more negative headlines than even the most tyrannical regimes on the globe.

Without a doubt, for Israelis, a peace proposal presented by the Trump Administration would be coming from perhaps the friendliest occupant of the Oval Office. It would also come amidst remarkable and dramatic changes taking place in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other Gulf states, where once reclusive conservative Arab princes, now compete with each other over who can meet the most Hollywood stars as well as political and business notables, and even Rabbis.

Against the backdrop of these dramatic developments in the region, this would appear to be the most opportune time to for the U.S. to break the impasse in the Holy Land. But it is also a time of potentially great peril where pressure on Israel to "close the deal" – perhaps at all costs – could lead the Jewish state to the brink of the abyss.

No Israeli government will accept Palestinian sovereignty over the holy sites. We have seen a preview of what happens when the Palestinians were given effective control over the Tomb of Joseph, adjacent to Nablus. Despite promises to protect the rights of Jews to pray, Palestinian extremists have torched the tomb three times and murdered a young Rabbi who rushed to retrieve a Torah scroll. Palestinians, on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, harass Jews who visit the site of Solomon's Temple. Jews, even mumbling prayers, can and have been arrested.

An Israeli government will never again agree to the dividing Jerusalem. History shows that divided cities never work. It was a disaster in Berlin and Vienna, cities 360 and 140 square miles respectively, when the World War II allies attempted this following the defeat of Nazism. But in a region rife with terrorism, the Old City of Jerusalem, and its holy sites to three religions, constitutes only 2.5 square miles and would be an easy target for deadly terrorist attacks.

At this pivotal moment, Israelis would do well to heed the advice of their first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, who wrote in a letter (in possession of the Simon Wiesenthal Center) to a colleague dated January 11, 1956: "We must remain in high regard and win over the sound opinion of the American leadership. They are the greatest democracy in the world. Still, we should hold in higher regard the righteousness of our way. An American leader in the future could say after a failure, 'I made a mistake. I did not understand the real intention of the Arab leaders.' We cannot afford to make mistakes on this decisive issue, nor can we allow any power in the world to compel us to make fateful mistakes.

The State of Israel, world Jewry and all lovers of Zion are very grateful for President Trump's historic decision to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem. It will, in the long-run contribute to, not destroy, true peace. But this gratefulness should not be misinterpreted as a readiness to cede sovereignty of the holy sites to fanatics who continue to deny Israel's 3,500-year attachment to its land, history and values.

Any such move would constitute a mortal danger and belie the red line set down by Ben-Gurion, "We cannot afford… any power in the world to compel us to make fateful mistakes."

Rabbi Marvin Hier is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Rabbi Abraham Cooper is Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.