In both cases, you have nationalism grounded on a people's shared history and common culture. The distinction between nation state and religion is kinda moot here.
The true problem of the Middle East conflict is that although the place has been the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, the state of Israel did not grow organically over hundreds of years like for example Ireland, and was instead founded on top of a pre-existing, non-Jewish population.
With Irish nationalism, you had two people (the Irish and the Brits) claiming the same land, but one side's claims had no justification beyond naked, imperialist greed. With regard to Israel/Palestine, you have two people claiming the same piece of land and both of them having damn good, legit reasons for their claim. That's what makes the situation so tricky once the option of "just coexist peacefully" doesn't work.
Neither Fnall's meme nor Ferdia's distinction between country and religion accurately get to this.
The present state of Israel has absolutely nothing to do with the ancient Biblical Israel.
The present Israel, a Talmudic Jewish state (which has nothing to do with OT Judaism, which was the predecessor of Christianity, present Judaism is evil & wholly divorced from God) has no legitimacy at all beyond being a Western colonial state (which I support the notion of).
If we really wanted to restore the land to its original ancestral inhabitants, it would be Christianized and colonized by Christians. That's what the Crusader States were.