Quotation from Theodor Herzl “Watch out, Yid. Zionism might proceed like William Tell” — Oct. 15 1897

In his weekly magazine, Die Welt, attacks in violent and contemptuous - not to say racist - terms the anti-Zionist "Mauschel" (pejorative term, rendered in English by Yid), to which he opposes the Zionist Jew - such as himself -.

Author : Thematics :
" Yid is anti-Zionist. We have known him for a long time, and just merely to look at him, let alone approach or, heaven forbid, touch him was enough to make us feel sick. But our disgust, until now, was moderated by pity; we sought extenuating historical explanations for his being so crooked, sleazy, and shabby a specimen. Moreover, we told ourselves that he was, after all, our fellow tribesman, though we had no cause to be proud of this fellowship. . . . Whenever he perpetrated some dirty deal, we tried to hush it up. When he compromised us all, we felt ashamed but kept silent.
Now at least the Yid has done something that merits praise – he has rejected us.
But who is this Yid, anyway? A type, my dear friends, a figure that pops up time and again, the dreadful companion of the Jew, one for the other. The Jew is a human being like any other, no better and no worse. The Yid, on the other hand, is a hideous distortion of the human character, something unspeakably low and repulsive. Where the Jew experiences pain or pride, the Yid feels only craven fear or twists his face into a sardonic grin. . . . The Yid is the curse of the Jews. . . In our own day, even a flight from religion can no longer rid the Jew of the Yid. Race is now the issue - as if the Jew and the Yid belonged to the same race. But go and prove that to the anti-Semite. To him, the two are always and inextricably linked…And then came Zionism. Both Jew and Yid had to take a stand, and now for the first time, the Yid rejects our community. The Yid is anti-Zionist! . . . This is one of the first and most beneficial consequences of the movement. We’ll breathe more easily, having got rid once and for all of these people whom, with furtive shame, we were obliged to treat as our fellow tribesmen. . . . Watch out, Yid. Zionism might proceed like William Tell . . . and keep a second arrow in reserve. Should the first shot miss, the second will serve the cause of vengeance. Friends, Zionism’s second arrow will pierce the Yid’s chest. "

Herzl, Mauschel , Die Welt, October 15, 1897. In Herzl, Zionist Writings, Essays and Adresses , p.167. Lawrence Dreyfus, Wagner and the Erotic Impulse, 2012, pp. 165-6, quoting Ernst Pawel, The Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl , 1990, pp. 345-6. Lien . Partially quoted by Thomas Suarez, Comment le terrorisme a créé Israël , Investig'action, 2018, pp. 46-47 (for the french translation).

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