September 3rd, 1897

The last several days, the most important days since the birth of the idea in Paris, have flown by. I was exhausted in Basel and during the journey back – so much so that I could not write things down, though this is more necessary now than ever, for others are also realizing that our movement has made its way into history.
If I attempt to summarize the Basel congress in a word – which I will be careful not to utter in public – it will be this: In Basel I founded the state of the Jews. If I said this aloud today, it would be met with general laughter. Perhaps in five years, and certainly in fifty, it will be understood by all. A state is founded on the desire of a nation for a state –even the desire of an individual, if it is strong enough (L’Etat c’est moi, in the words of Louis XIV). Territory is only the material infrastructure; a state, even when it has a territory, always has a certain abstract quality. The State of the Church exists even without territory, or else the Pope would not be sovereign.
And so I established in Basel an entity that is abstract, and therefore invisible to most people. In fact, I did so with minimal means. I gradually immersed the people in the atmosphere of a state, and gave them the sense that they were the founding assembly.

Bitko'a Hashofar (As the Shofar Blows: Herzl, His Endeavor and Selected Writings), edited by Reuven Hecht; Moledet.