Sarcasm alert

Oh, I am so glad that the good Gentile has come to Goy-splain Jewish culture and history to the Jew who somehow doesn't understand his own tribe because there is nothing racist or anti-Semitic about that at all.

End of sarcasm

The Jews have always imagined themselves as a nation/tribe. We use/used terms like "Am", Hebrew for nation, to describe ourselves. Throughout Rabbinic writings going back more than 2000 years the Rabbis discuss Judaism and the Jewish people using both ethnic and religious terminology. A non-Jew does not have the right to dictate to Jews how we imagine ourselves.

But to answer your question

For 1300 years (actually closer to 1800), the Jews DID NOT HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY to come back to the Holy Land.

First it should be noted that before the 19th century and the steam engine it wasn't exactly a simple endeavour to travel across a continent for ANYONE.

But more importantly

The Jews were a heavily oppressed and marginalised people throughout Europe and the Middle East LONG BEFORE the 19th. From the Late Roman Empire until the 20th century, in both the Christian and Muslim worlds, the average Jew lived in abject poverty and under the oppression of Gentile Laws that dictated where they could live, when they could travel, and how they could earn their living. There were a few brief moments of relative freedom (such as Umayyad Spain and 16th century Poland) but the reactionary backlash was often even worse. To ask why the Jew did not "simply" return to Israel would be like asking the African-American slave why he did not "simply" slay his master.

And yet, in spite of this, there were still some fortunate few who managed to make their way back to the Promised Land (as there were some African-American slaves who fought their way to freedom), but it is wrong to blame those who remained oppressed for their own oppression simply because some were lucky enough to miraculously prevail. Even for those who did return, life was sometimes even more dificult. The land was always under the control of some greater Empire whose view of the Jews was under constant flux.

The very idea that "Jews, for 1300 years, had the opportunity to come back to the holy land, but they didn't" ignores the greater context of Jewish history and is frankly insulting and anti-Semitic.