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According to [[Wickham Steed|Henry Wickham Steed]], Herzl was initially "fanatically devoted to the propagation of Jewish-German 'Liberal' assimilationist doctrine."<ref>''The Habsburg Monarchy'' (London 1914), p. 188</ref> However, Herzl came to reject his early ideas regarding [[Jewish emancipation]] and [[Jewish assimilation|assimilation]] and to believe that the Jews must remove themselves from Europe.<ref>Rubenstein, Richard L., and Roth, John K. (2003). ''Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and Its Legacy'', p. 94. Louisville. Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. {{ISBN|978-0-664-22353-3}}.</ref> Herzl grew to believe that antisemitism could not be defeated or cured, only avoided, and that the only way to avoid it was the establishment of a Jewish state.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jacques|last=Kornberg <!--|author-link=Jacques Kornberg -->|title=Theodor Herzl: From Assimilation to Zionism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=31LMY9S8IBIC&q=%22Karl%20Lueger%22%20herzl&pg=PA98|series=Jewish Literature and Culture|date=1993|isbn=978-0-253-33203-5|pages=193–194|access-date=8 August 2009|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]]|location=[[Bloomington, Indiana]]|quote="Thus, for the time being, antisemitism is alien to the French people, and they are unable to comprehend it ...<br>By contrast, several months later ... Herzl was to offer a far different assessment of antisemitism in Austria, as a power and mainline movement on an upward course. Moreover, his fury over Austrian antisemitism had no parallel in his reaction to French antisemitism.}}</ref> In June 1895, he wrote in his diary: "In Paris, as I have said, I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-semitism ... Above all, I recognized the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-semitism." Herzl's editors at ''Neue Freie Presse'' refused any publication of his Zionist political activities. A mental clash gripped Herzl, between the craving for literary success and a desire to act as a public figure.<ref>Vital, ''A People Apart'', vol. 2, p. 439</ref> Around this time, Herzl started writing pamphlets about ''A Jewish State''. Herzl claimed that these pamphlets resulted in the establishment of the Zionist Movement, and they did play a large role in the movement's rise and success.<ref>Royal Commission on Alien Immigration, 'Minutes of Evidence', 7 July 1902, p. 211</ref> His testimony before the British Royal Commission reflected his fundamental, romantic liberal view on life as the 'Problem of the Jews .'
Beginning in late 1895, Herzl wrote {{Lang|de|[[Der Judenstaat]]}} (''The State of the Jews''), which was published February 1896 to immediate acclaim and controversy. The book argued that the Jewish people should leave Europe for Palestine, their historic homeland. The Jews possessed a nationality; all they were missing was a nation and a state of their own.<ref name="Cleveland, William L. 2004. p. 224">Cleveland, William L. ''A History of the Modern Middle East''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2004. Print. p. 224</ref> Only through a Jewish state could they avoid antisemitism, express their culture freely and practice their religion without hindrance.<ref name="Cleveland, William L. 2004. p. 224"/> Herzl's ideas spread rapidly throughout the Jewish world and attracted international attention.<ref>Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Moritz Gudemann, "Since the Destruction of the Second Temple, the Jews have ceased to be a political-national identity", from Gudemann, ''National Judentum'', (1897); M Graens, 'Jewry in Modern Period', in eds., Frankell & Zipperstein, p. 162</ref> Supporters of existing Zionist movements, such as the [[Hovevei Zion]], immediately allied themselves with him, but he also encountered bitter opposition from members of the Orthodox community and those seeking to integrate in non-Jewish society.<ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/1.5115016 "Herzl and the rabbis"], ''[[Haaretz]]''</ref> His notorious article [[Herzl's Mauschel and Zionist antisemitism|Mauschel]], published just after the first Zionist Congress, depicted Jews who oppose Zionism as constituting a despicable type of Jew and has often been described as antisemitic.<ref>[[Daniel Boyarin]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=n6QwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA300 ''Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man,''] [[University of California Press]] 1997 {{isbn|978-0-520-21050-9}} pp. 299–300.</ref><ref>Jacques Kornberg, [https://books.google.com/books?id=31LMY9S8IBIC ''Theodor Herzl: From Assimilation to Zionism,''] [[Indiana University Press]] 1993 {{isbn|978-0-253-11259-0}} pp. 164–165.</ref><ref>[[Ritchie Robertson]], [http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/ogs.1985.16.1.81 "The Problem of ‘Jewish Self-Hatred’" in Herzl, Kraus and Kafka,'] ''Oxford German Studies'', Vol. 16, No. 1 pp. 81–102 [90]: 'To some contemporaries, including [[Karl Kraus (writer)|Kraus]] , 'Mauschel' seemed like a piece of Jewish anti-Semitism.'</ref>[[File:PikiWiki Israel 7188 Herzl on board reaching the shores of Palestine.jpg|thumb|Herzl on board a vessel reaching the shores of Palestine, 1898]]
In {{Lang|de|
▲In {{Lang|de|[[Der Judenstaat]]}} he writes: <blockquote>"The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilised countries—see, for instance, France—so long as the Jewish question is not solved on the political level."<ref>Herzl, ''Der Judenstaat'', cited by C.D. Smith, ''Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict'', 2001, 4th ed., p. 53</ref></blockquote>
The book concludes: {{blockquote|Therefore I believe that a wondrous generation of Jews will spring into existence. The [[Maccabees|Maccabeans]] will rise again. Let me repeat once more my opening words: The Jews who wish for a State will have it. We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes. The world will be freed by our liberty, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there to accomplish for our own welfare, will react powerfully and beneficially for the good of humanity.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25282/25282-h/25282-h.htm|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Jewish State, by Theodor Herzl.|via=gutenberg.org|date=2008-05-02}}</ref>}}
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