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The Causes and Consequences of Terror and Violence: A Comparison of Sri Lanka and the Palestinians, Secular versus Religious Forms of Suicide Bombing
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Palestinian Suicide Bombing: Public Support, Market Share and Outbidding
Dr. Mia M. Bloom, Rutgers University, Center for Global Security and McGill University.
Abstract
:
The scholarship analyzing suicide bombing conceives of the phenomenon as motivated by
religious beliefs, nationalist ideology, obedience to charismatic and authoritarian leaders, or because of despair. This article demonstrates why Palestinian public opinion increasingly supports the tactic against both Israeli civilians and military personnel. Under the present political environment, the bombings are a method of recruitment and mobilization for radical Palestinian organizations. They serve at one and the same time to attack the hated enemy (Israel) and give legitimacy to outlier militant groups who compete with the Palestinian Authority for leadership. To understand suicide bombing we need to view it as more than just a reaction to external stimuli (Israeli policy or Israeli negotiations) and understand that the motivations for violence are endogenous to Palestinian society. There are two audiences intended for the violence, one domestic and one international. The attacks are calculated to wear down Israeli morale and convince Israel to end its occupation while the extremist groups vie for power and use violence, in conjunction with the provision of social services, to win the “hearts and minds” of Palestinians. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad compete for leadership with martyrdom attacks the prime method for augmenting their organizational profile and prestige and capturing the Palestinian imagination.
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Why have suicide bombings in the Middle East become so popular? In this article
I investigate how and why Palestinian public opinion increasingly supported suicide
bombings even though support for such operations and for Hamas fluctuated in the past.
Since November 2000, Palestinian public opinion has alarmingly shifted its support
towards radical Islamic organizations because of a number of factors endogenous to
Palestinian society.
1
Under the conditions of mounting public support, the bombings
became a method of recruitment for militant Islamic organizations within the Palestinian
community. They serve at one and the same time to attack the hated enemy (Israel) and
give legitimacy to outlier militant groups who compete with the Palestinian Authority
(PA) for leadership of the community.
1
I would like to thank the Center of International Studies at Princeton University and, especially, Richard
H. Ullman and the SSRC Global Security and Cooperation Program for their support of this research. Many thanks to: Nichole Argo, Magnes T. Bernhardsson, Robinder Bhatty, Richard W. Bulliet, Daniel L. Byman, Martha Crenshaw, Bryan Ross Daves, Robert G. Gilpin, Alexandra Filindra, Bruce Hoffman, Amaney Jamal, Roy Licklider, Assaf Moghadam, John J. Mearsheimer, Michael L. Lipson, Robert A. Pape, Edward Rhodes, Steve M. Saideman, and Christopher P. Twomey for their very helpful comments on earlier drafts. An earlier version of this article will appear as ch. 2 in Mia M. Bloom, Dying to Kill: the Global Phenomenon of Suicide Terror. NY: Columbia University Press, 2004 (forthcoming).
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1
Palestinian Suicide Bombing: Public Support, Market Share and Outbidding
Dr. Mia M. Bloom, Rutgers University, Center for Global Security and McGill University.
Abstract
:
The scholarship analyzing suicide bombing conceives of the phenomenon as motivated by
religious beliefs, nationalist ideology, obedience to charismatic and authoritarian leaders, or because of
despair. This article demonstrates why Palestinian public opinion increasingly supports the tactic against
both Israeli civilians and military personnel. Under the present political environment, the bombings are a
method of recruitment and mobilization for radical Palestinian organizations. They serve at one and the
same time to attack the hated enemy (Israel) and give legitimacy to outlier militant groups who compete
with the Palestinian Authority for leadership. To understand suicide bombing we need to view it as more
than just a reaction to external stimuli (Israeli policy or Israeli negotiations) and understand that the
motivations for violence are endogenous to Palestinian society. There are two audiences intended for the
violence, one domestic and one international. The attacks are calculated to wear down Israeli morale and
convince Israel to end its occupation while the extremist groups vie for power and use violence, in
conjunction with the provision of social services, to win the “hearts and minds” of Palestinians. Hamas and
the Islamic Jihad compete for leadership with martyrdom attacks the prime method for augmenting their
organizational profile and prestige and capturing the Palestinian imagination.
1
Why have suicide bombings in the Middle East become so popular? In this article
I investigate how and why Palestinian public opinion increasingly supported suicide
bombings even though support for such operations and for Hamas fluctuated in the past.
Since November 2000, Palestinian public opinion has alarmingly shifted its support
towards radical Islamic organizations because of a number of factors endogenous to
Palestinian society.
1
Under the conditions of mounting public support, the bombings
became a method of recruitment for militant Islamic organizations within the Palestinian
community. They serve at one and the same time to attack the hated enemy (Israel) and
give legitimacy to outlier militant groups who compete with the Palestinian Authority
(PA) for leadership of the community.
1
I would like to thank the Center of International Studies at Princeton University and, especially, Richard
H. Ullman and the SSRC Global Security and Cooperation Program for their support of this research. Many
thanks to: Nichole Argo, Magnes T. Bernhardsson, Robinder Bhatty, Richard W. Bulliet, Daniel L. Byman,
Martha Crenshaw, Bryan Ross Daves, Robert G. Gilpin, Alexandra Filindra, Bruce Hoffman, Amaney
Jamal, Roy Licklider, Assaf Moghadam, John J. Mearsheimer, Michael L. Lipson, Robert A. Pape, Edward
Rhodes, Steve M. Saideman, and Christopher P. Twomey for their very helpful comments on earlier drafts.
An earlier version of this article will appear as ch. 2 in Mia M. Bloom, Dying to Kill: the Global
Phenomenon of Suicide Terror. NY: Columbia University Press, 2004 (forthcoming).
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