Showing posts with label Palestinian Terrorists Are Not Psychopaths. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palestinian Terrorists Are Not Psychopaths. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Why Palestinian Incitement Against Israel Works--And When It Doesn't

Evelyn Gordon makes the point that Palestinian incitement of hatred against Israel is successful because it is based on psychology--not psychopaths:
Some years ago, at the height of the second intifada, the Shin Bet security service interviewed dozens of failed suicide bombers (people caught before they could blow themselves up, or whose bombs failed to explode) in an effort to find out what made them tick. Its conclusion may at first seem surprising: The number-one motive driving these terrorists was a craving for their own society’s admiration. The knowledge that they would be lionized as heroes – that streets and squares would be named for them, that religious and political leaders would sing their praises, that the media would publish glowing obituaries, that schoolchildren would study them as role models – created a powerful incentive for young Palestinians to blow themselves up.
That being the case, that finding also indicates how to defeat Palestinian society's reward of terrorism: