A Canadian researcher says suicide bombers are neither crazy nor do they make rational strategic choices designed to achieve certain goals.
Neither conventional interpretation is correct in the case of the second intifada, according to University of Toronto Sociology Professor Robert Brym, who says revenge and retaliation seem to be the principal animus driving suicide bombings.
We see this when we examine when attacks occur, what people say about why they’re taking place and when we look at the actual costs and benefits gained, he said.
Brym and colleagues created a database of collective violence events that occurred during the second intifada — the term generally used to describe the Palestinian uprising against Israel that began in the fall of 2000.
The team collected data on 138 attacks from Hebrew and Arabic newspapers and the New York Times, analyzing the data for individual motives, organizational rationales and events leading up to each attack.
He and co-author Bader Araj, a Ph.D. student, found suicide bombers usually committed the acts to avenge the death of a relative, as retribution, or for perceived attacks against Islam.
The research appears in the journal Social Forces.
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