in the international balance of payments was invented, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was dependent upon a heavy and continuous flow of capital from Europe in the form of gifts, religious and secular grants, alms, and pilgrims' taxes. The whole of Europe became the domain of a kind of United Crusaders Appeal.
If the kibbutzim are a unique creation of Zionism, so were the great military orders an authentic invention of the Crusaders. Settlement followed a strikingly similar pattern. A fortress manned by the Knights of the Temple or the Hospital would be established deep in Arab territory, much like Israel's frontier kibbutzim, some of which, in fact, are built around the ruins of Crusaders' castles. Around the castle, relying on it for defense, individual settlers would slowly create a pattern of colonization. Some of the villages seem to have had a kind of cooperative organization, like modern Israel's moshavim. The military orders increasingly overshadowed the government of the kingdom. Their strength was based upon a combination of their military potential and economic importance. In this, they resemble some of the modern Israeli party organizations based on kibbutzim and a multitude of economic enterprises, giving them a disproportionally important voice in the government.
One could go on making these comparisons, right down to details. Was King Baldwin I so dissimilar to old David Ben-Gurion? Who resembles Moshe Dayan more than Reynald of Chatillon, the raider of Moslem caravans, the hawk of the kingdom, the man who became so obnoxious to the Arabs that Saladin personally saw fit to cut off his head?
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In rejecting the analogy in toto, the Zionists point out what they consider the decisive difference. The Crusaders, they believe, never were a majority in their own states.