The race-religion-ethnic-nation debate is a matter of deep division
among many in israel, so none of us should be smug about "knowing" the
difference, or considering it "anti-Semitic" to call judaism a
religion....

some extremely devout jews of the orthodox persuasion think israel is a
crime against "g-d", as they refer to it(since one is not supposed to
spell the deity or something) because a jewish nation is blasphemy, and
zionism is  seen by them as the worst thing that ever happened to
judaism...

I guess such jews are self-hating, even though they are a far more
devoted to hebrew texts, the torah, testaments,ancient rites and rituals
etc, than the secular types who expound on their jewishness but deny
little or any faith in those same texts or belief systems....

this is not to say it is easy, only that making one or another case
-it's a religion, it's a nationality, it's a searing pain in the ass if
you're a palestinian, it's a bloody foreign policy fiasco if you're an
american, etc, is not simply reducible to "you're an anti-Semite", or at
least shouldn't be, among thinking people who are not religious or
nationalist fanatics...
fs