Is Judaism an ethnicity or a (political) religion?
The State of Israel's problem is its schizophrenic confusion when commonly called the Jewish State. Because Jewish refers both to a religion (Judaism) and to an ethnicity (Jewish-hood).
You might call yourself Jewish by referring to your ancestry, even if you do not practice Judaism. Or, reciprocally, you might convert to Judaism - for whatever reason, without having any Jewish ancestor.
Solution is to stop calling Israel a Jewish State. To stop promoting either racism or religious bigotry. As a religion, Judaism should be enjoyed solely as a folklore, and not taken more seriously, not taken politically. It is too old and too weird to be promoted or even be politically acceptable in a civilized peace-loving post-modern society.
The Hebrew State is what we should call Israel in order to protect its people, most of them with Jewish ancestry but not bigots, to protect its singularity and its language-culture, positively. What is important is to preserve the language, not to take seriously that obsolete religious mythology, which instigates, encourages, and values conflicts and war.
In a TV program, Chanel 3, in mid May, Thursday (? date I failed to register), 10:30-11 am, the person talking was promoting the idea of Jerusalem belonging to the Jews, and only to the Jews, ignoring the fact that Christian and Muslims are also considering the city as sacred to them in their own religions perspective (Muslims call it Ghods). In support, he would give reference to the Torah: I Kings, 9:3:5, Joel, 3:3:2, and Zaccharia 3:12:1-2. Obviously, that doesn't help peace. The Program's name: The Prophetic Connection.
In the same program and discourse, the broadcaster ended in promoting the selling of DVDs on the topic: 3DVD, 13 episodes, for $75. To help Israeli children. One out of 3 children in Israel live in poverty, he said. Really? Perhaps change is needed.
