The Mossad is a security service of the nation of Israel, which, for all intents and purposes, is a nation designed to house and protect Jews. And Judaism is a religion. So yes, a connection exists.
Did you try applying for Israeli citizenship? AFAIK being a follower of Judaism is a requirement. Source: a Christian Jew being denied a citizenship due to this reason.
No... it isn't (as there are 100s of thousands of Muslim, Christian, etc. citizens in Israel). I am assuming you are a foreign national and you are referring to the Law of Return.
Currently, there is a prohibition on using that right and "professing" another religion. Blame the haredi, according to my granfather they're as*holes.
You could get a visa and naturalize like anyone else that is eligible.
I am eligible because my great grandmother was there before statehood in the Irgun.
Me too, but a lot of (admittedly not all) opposition to Israel's existence, extent, and its security apparatus is rooted in anti-semitism. I'm not going to undertake a long discussion about it, but in short, you can hear the dog whistles and they're inappropriate.
Of course... one side of my family goes way way back in the area. Great grandma was Irgun. Rest of the fam was Austro-Hungarian/Ottoman/Polish/Ukrainian/Russian depending on what decade you looked at. Empires borders kept moving. I think at one point we might even had been Italian (Trieste).
Judaism is not only religion in a sense that you go to synagogue to pray. Being a jew is not only about religion but also about traditions, e.g., celebrating jewish holidays, teaching your kids about history of your people, etc.
If you do nothing jewish, then I would argue that you are not jewish in a cultural sense. You still would be a jew from a religious point of view (if your mom is jewish), but if you do nothing jewish, then you are not jewish.
I guess what I am trying to say is being jewish is not ethnicity only, or religion only, it's both. For example, converts are considered jews despite their non-jewish ethnicity.
Had a Jewish wedding and secular divorce, a few rabbis in the family on fathers side, went to Synagogue for a decade or so, haven't gone in a few decades. Don't really keep to most of the traditions. I'm ethnically Jewish and a big chunk of the family is also culturally Jewish with a smaller bit also religiously Jewish. Oddly the Israeli part of the family isn't religious at all (atheist) but follows more of the traditions because they live in a Jewish nation.
Conflating the state of Israel with all Jewish people & implying all of have (a secret) allegiance to Israel, regardless of their citizenship is actual anti-Semitism. Correctly identifying folk who fought for Israel is not anti-Semitic in any way the allegiance at the time they served in an elite unit is clear to all.
You’re responding to an argument that I’m not making. I said there is a connection, which is true. Obviously not everyone living in Israel is Jewish, nor is everyone there a practicing Jew. But the founders’ purpose remains and is woven throughout society and its constitution.
And people aren’t just “identifying folk.” This thread has devolved into a debate about Israel itself, which invariably happens when Israel is even tangentially involved in a story.
I am highlighting that the "connection" you mention is frequently used in bad faith by actual anti-semites, as well as the pro-Likud propagandists who suggest that any criticism of the government of Israel or its policies is antisemitism, as if the current government and Jewish people are interchangeable.
