Hertzl didn't choose to occupy anything. His main objective, and the one he fought off the "lovers of zion" over, was a legitimate internationally recognized place for Eastern European "Jews". This was in fact the most serious rift between Hertzl and the Russians.When he died in 1904, the zionist movement was re-purposed for something he never envisioned.

In principal, Western Jews like Hertzl himself did not plan to go anywhere. They saw themselves as Europeans were already emancipated since the first half of the 19th century and integrated (which led to growing anti-Semitism in Western Europe, but that's a different story).

Hertzl was secular and agnostic. Very different circumstances to those in the southern part of the Russian Empire (Pale of Settlement).