Jerusalem's status as Islam's third holiest city is a historical and religious ruse aimed at depriving the Jews of the very core of their faith and nation.

That according to Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, who addressed a gathering of 200 of his co-religionists at a synagogue in Montreal, Canada on Friday.

Jerusalem is “not holy to Muslims at all,” insisted Klein, who has gained a reputation, and not a few people's respect, for always being forthright. Islam, he continued, simply wants to “take away our heart and soul.”

Indeed, Jerusalem does not appear even once in the Quran, and its identification today as the site of the “farthest mosque” from which Mohammed ascended to heaven is certainly erroneous, considering that at the time of Mohammed, Jerusalem was ruled by Christians and the Temple Mount was the city's trash dump.

Jerusalem's historical importance to Islam appears to follow a pattern closely corresponding to different Christian efforts to conquer the holy city.

Klein went on to blast the modern notion of a “Palestinian” people that are somehow independent and different from the rest of the Arabs in the region.

“The 'Palestinians' have never been a real people because there was never an actual country called 'Palestine,'” he stated.