How 'Foreign' is the Temple Mount?

Once upon a time:

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said [in 2007]...that "the Temple Mount is the holiest place in the world to the Jewish people," 

And again, in the New York Times:

When I saw Livni a second time, in Tel Aviv, she said the seashore was where she felt at home. “But,” she added, “my existence here comes out of the connection between me and Temple Mount. This is the umbilical cord. It comes from Jerusalem.”

Today,

...According to the Foreign Ministry, any change in the status quo on the Mount would likely cause an international incident that would put Israel in a very poor light. Speaking at the session, Freida Yuval, deputy head of the Jordan desk in the Foreign Ministry, said that allowing Jews free worship on the Mount would “awaken the entire world,” and bring about another intifada,

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