'Jerusalem Not Holy To Muslims'

President of Zionist Organization of America: Palestinians 'not real people'

Taken from Ynet News, Isreal, 07.01.07, 10:47
By Yaakov Lappin

Jerusalem is "not holy to Muslims at all," the president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Morton Klein, told a Quebec synagogue congregation, the Canadian Jewish News (CJN) reported on Friday.

Klein said Jerusalem had never been important to Muslims, and that the Islamic claim on Jerusalem was designed "to take away our heart and our soul," the CJN said.

He added that Palestinians "have never been a real people because there was never an actual country called 'Palestine,'" the report added.

"He even accused Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of being willing to sell out Israel for the chance at 'peace,' when 'peace' has never been on Palestinian leaders' minds," CJN quoted Klein as saying.

Here's Full Article taken from Canadian Jewish News website
Zionist leader slams U.S. Jewish organizations
By DAVID LAZARUS

MONTREAL - Contrary to what the world is constantly being told, Jerusalem is “not holy to Muslims at all,” never has been, and will be the Jewish people’s forever, a prominent American Jewish leader said here.

“They simply want to take away our heart and our soul,” said Morton Klein, 14-year president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).

The ZOA is one of the United States’ oldest – and most conservative – Israel advocacy organizations. Founded in 1897, it has been called one of Jewish America’s most credible voices by the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers.

Speaking just a few days before the 40th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification, Klein addressed an audience of 200 at the Beth Zion Congregation and lived up to his reputation for not mincing words.

Klein was unsparing and fiery in his criticism of other Jewish organizations for, in the ZOA’s view, pandering to politics instead of principles and for not challenging myths that are now taken as accepted truths.

Palestinians, for example, have never been a real people, he said, because there was never an actual country called “Palestine.”

He even accused Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of being willing to sell out Israel for the chance at “peace,” when “peace” has never been on Palestinian leaders’ minds.

During his speech, Klein held up an old front page of the New York Times from the date of the State of Israel’s creation in May 1948. The headline suggested there was hope for hostilities coming to an end eventually.

But it hasn’t and “nothing has changed since then,” he said.

He called Israel’s so-called ongoing “occupation” of land “one of the world’s great lies,” and said a different “value system” is why the mothers of suicide bombers rejoice in their own children’s demise.

Klein said he personally – but not the ZOA – would accept the concept of a “two-state” solution if he thought it would work.

“But it never will. They would only scream louder” with more demands, he said.

Klein was aghast that Olmert was ready to consider a Saudi Arabian plan for peace that would have Israel go back to the pre-1967 borders, resolve the refugee issue and have the Arab world accept Israel – all for the sake of a “peace” that would not come about anyway.

On the Jerusalem issue, Klein railed against the worldwide efforts to “de-Judaicize” the Jewish people’s holiest city and against American policy that identifies Jerusalem as a city of birth in U.S. passports without naming Israel as the country of birth (Canadian policy is the same for its passports).

“The ZOA is now suing the State Department over this,” he said.

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It's wacko's like these that prevent peace in the Middle East. Worringly enough is that this jerk has a position on AIPAC and has influence on US foreign policy in the Middle East. Only last week President Bush met with Jewish organisations to discuss the situation after Hamas took control over Gazza - maybe he should've talked to Arab organisation, after all it's an Arab issue - maybe these arab groups do not provide enough political funds to the administration - maybe that is root of the the problems?

Further info:
http://www.zoa.org/klein.htm