Actually this isn't exactly a rebuttal of his statements. He specifically mentioned settlers who came there for a purpose which would exclude these particular settlers if in fact they exist. You appear to be denying that a Zionist movement even existed way back in the 19th century.
Yes it is a rebuttal. It's a rebuttal because persecution was the impetus to the zionist claims. It was Moses Hess in the middle of the nineteenth century who stated, correctly and almost "prophetically", that anti-Semitism was an intrinsic aspect of the German psyche and that the only way to escape this would be to go to Palestine. Moroever, many zionists were driven by a simple desire to return to the land and build in harmony with the Arabs. Maybe at some point an autonomous state would be possible but the immediate belief was less about that then it was about the issue of the pervasive history of persecution, a relief from that and the benefits of living in that land in harmony with the Arabs.