Harvard University and RAND Corporation researchers used data collected by the Israeli Security Agency to review all suicide attacks from September 2000 to August 2005, a total of 151 incidents that killed 515 people and injured almost 3,500.
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They found the five most educated bombers all blew themselves up in major Israeli cities and killed an average of 22.8 people per attack and wounded an average of 88, while bombers in the rest of the sample took the lives of an average of three people and wounded an average of 25.2.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/...
A few of the deadliest attacks against targets in Israel were carried out by highly educated people pursuing advanced degrees. What a shame for the Palestinian people to have that talent go to waste. A much more valuable contribution to Palestinian society would have been to take that learning to advance the Palestinian cause in some way, whether thru better political or economic action.
A Harvard economics professor deduced that the labor markets for suicide bombers is no different than regular labor markets, in that the more talented, more educated carry out more sophisticated jobs.
The bomber has to decide in an instant whether to blow themselves up, to hide or to continue to a better target or to abort. There is a lot in trying to hide themselves in the local population without being detected. There is a lot to it, much more than a bystander would think," Berrebi said.
So if suicide bombing is a goal oriented tactic, designed to advance military and political goals, it has failed spectacularly. How long will it be till the Palestinians realize that suicide bombing is self defeating?
look what it's wrought....
Israel builds a wall that has encroached over the green line, perhaps as a political response to the blood it has shed via Palestinian suicide bombings. So Israel is taking land as a response, and suicide bombings have been greatly reduced - that's a lose/lose for Palestinians....yet still Hamas glorifies the act on Hamas TV. That's bad political judgement.
The world looks at suicide bombings as depraved
Jimmy Carter said they were the near destruction of the Palestinian cause
Promotes further stereotyping of Palestinians as terrorists
Destroys/perverts the culture as a whole
The Palestinian economy has suffered greatly due to security restrictions put in place due to suicide bombings.
And,in a side note, Islamic fundamentalism encourages suicide bombings with it's entreaties that Allah will look favorably on the bomber.
Meanwhile, as noted above, Hamas still glorifies the act of suicide bombing on their TV channel Hamas TV.
moon