I have just returned from a two week trip to Israel where I visited my family. Having studied the Crusader states of Outremer, I see so many parallels between the fate of the modern state of Israel and the Frankish medieval states, the remnants of which still dot the landscape.
For a time the Crusader states of Outremer (French for "beyond the sea") built great things, achieved a great prosperity, dominating trade routes and exporting sugar to Europe, living in relative peace with the native population, and were the feudal laboratory of innovations in governance. The lords of Outremer lived in luxury in impregnable castles, while the land yielded a wealth not seen in that region since the Phoenicians. And yet in the end this edifice crumbled, leaving only ruins behind, and in retrospect we consider this collapse inevitable and the ambition to establish a permanent European presence in the Holy Land as impossible. Looking at Israel today, I see many of the same dynamics at work and will try to describe them for you. This first diary will look at the social and economic situation, with a later one focusing on the military and diplomatic situation.