Ami Pedahzur

The Challenges of Conceptualizing Terrorism

This analysis begins by exploring various reasons that the concept of terrorism has evaded a widely agreed upon definition for so long despite the efforts of so many writers. Emphasis is placed on the difficulties associated with all “essentially contested concepts.” In addition, the investigation calls attention to such problems as conceptual “stretching” and “traveling.” In an effort to solve the difficulties, the inquiry attempts to determine a consensus definition of terrorism by turning to an empirical analysis of how the term has been employed by academics over the years. Specifically, the well-known definition developed by Alex Schmid, based upon responses to a questionnaire he circulated in 1985, is compared with the way the concept has been employed by contributors to the major journals in the field: Terrorism, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, and Terrorism and Political Violence. The 22 “definitional elements” of which Schmids definition is composed are compared to the frequency with which they appear in the professional journals. If these elements appear frequently in both the Schmid definition and those employed by the journal contributors, they are then used to form a consensus definition of the concept. The most striking feature of this academic consensus over the meaning of terrorism is the virtual absence of references to the psychological element, heretofore widely thought to be at the heart of the concept.

The Changing Nature of Suicide Attacks - A Social Network Perspective

To comprehend the developments underlying the suicide attacks of recent years, we suggest that the organizational approach, which until recently was used to explain this phenomenon, should be complemented with a social network perspective. By employing a social network analysis of Palestinian suicide networks, we have found that, in contrast to prevailing perceptions which view suicide attacks as a product of strategic decisions made within organizational frameworks, decisions have actually been made, to a great extent, by local activists, and struggles between local and family groups have proved to be the best predictor of their actions in this context. We also found that the peripheral nature of suicide bombers has been a characteristic common to most networks. Finally, we have found that the existence of cohesive subgroups, as well as the number of hubs in a network, has an influence on the networks effectiveness. We conclude the paper by showing that the method of network analysis can also be of considerable assistance from the standpoint of dealing with suicide attacks. On the one hand, this is possible by identifying the networks central figures who are essential for its continued existence, and on the other, we identify the grassroots factors responsible for the emergence of these networks.

Social Network Analysis in the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence

The academic community studying terrorism has changed dramatically in the past decade. From a research area that was investigated by a small number of political scientists and sociologists and employed mainly descriptive and qualitative studies that resulted in limited theoretical progress (Schmid and Jongman 1988; Crenshaw 2000), it has in a short time become one of the more vibrant and rapidly developing academic realms in the scholarly world today. Scholars from different branches of the social sciences have engaged in an effort to unravel this phenomenon, introducing new theoretical outlooks, conceptualizations, and methods.

Hatred by Hated People: Xenophobia in Israel

Israel is a state with a large (some 80 percent) Jewish majority. Jews were victims of prejudice and xenophobia for two millennia. They constituted a minority in their countries of residence, and were subject to discrimination and persecution. The founders of Israel pledged, in the states Declaration of Independence, to establish a society free from hatred, a society where all citizens enjoyed equal rights. The horrors suffered by the Jewish people during World War II consolidated Israels pledge to erase hatred. Yet the country is imbued with hatred towards three distinct groups: Arabs, foreign workers, and Ethiopian Jews. The Arabs are hated in the setting of the ArabIsraeli conflict; foreign workers may be resented on account of economic rivalry; Ethiopian Jews are probably shunned because they are different in skin color and have customs from the majority of Israelis. This article attempts to examine hatred in contemporary Israel, addressing the following questions: (a) What is the scope of hatred? (...

Contributory factors to Political Xenophobia in a multi-cultural society:: the case of Israel

Abstract The aim of this article is to assess the explanatory potential of three kinds of reasoning (socio-economic, political and psychological) in the field of political xenophobia . The Israeli arena, chosen for the study, provides a relevant context for the study of political xenophobia . This can be attributed to the varied ethnic populations in this country (immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, foreign workers and Palestinian Citizens of Israel), which attract the animosity of the veteran Jewish group. Our findings, based on a series of multiple linear regressions of the data collected from 994 respondents support the hypotheses. As hypothesized, the prominent finding is that while the socio-economic approach has a minor explanatory capability and the political approach explains mainly certain types of political xenophobia , the psychological approach is not only powerful for explaining all types of political xenophobia , but constant in its explanatory ability.

Democratic Attitudes among High-School Pupils: The Role Played by Perceptions of Class Climate.

The present study shed light on the continuing debate among students of political socialisation regarding the effects of civic education on the upholding of democratic attitudes. Our major conclusion is that civic education, in and of itself, has only minor effects on democratic attitudes of pupils. Furthermore, among pupils who attended civic education classes, democratic class climate would have a crucial effect on the internalisation of democratic attitudes, and the association between sociodemographic characteristics and democratic attitudes is partially mediated by perception of democratic class climate. The findings offer a model which involves demographics and class climate for predicting the success of civic education in meeting its main goal—the absorption and internalisation of democratic attitudes. Thus, we hope to take the ongoing debate in the field at least one small step forward. 1

The social and religious characteristics of suicide bombers and their victims

Using data collected by the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, the authors provide social profiles of Palestinian suicide bombers and their largely Israeli victims. In addition, drawing on a series of public opinion polls, the writers describe the reactions of Israeli citizens to the wave of suicide bombings the country has experienced since the beginning of the Al Aqsa intifada in the second half of 2000.

Root causes of suicide terrorism : the globalization of martyrdom

Introduction: Characteristics of suicide attacks / Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger -- Defining suicide terrorism / Assaf Moghadam -- Dying to kill : motivations for suicide terrorism / Mia Bloom -- Dying to be martyrs : the symbolic dimension of suicide terrorism / Mohammed M. Hafez -- The roots of suicide terrorism : a multi-causal approach / Assaf Moghadam -- Suicide terrorism for secular causes / Leonard Weinberg -- Islam and Al Qaeda / Marc Sageman -- Al-Qaeda and the global epidemic of suicide attacks / Yoram Schweitzer -- Being Bin Laden : an applied decision analysis procedure for analyzing and predicting terrorists decisions / Alex Mintz, J. Tyson Chatagnier, David J. Brul -- Maghreb immigrants becoming suicide terrorists : a case study on religious radicalization processes in Spain / Rogelio Alonso and Fernando Reinares.

I versus We Collective and Individual Factors of Reserve Service Motivation during War and Peace

This study examines conditions of peace and war to find whether the “rally `round the flag” effect is indeed attributed to rising levels of social collectivism. Reserve service motivation in peacetime and wartime was compared among 1,004 Israeli reservists. Levels of motivation and the factors that affect them were examined during the optimism of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process (February 2000) and about a year and a half into the second Intifada (October 2000). Findings suggest that motivation to serve in wartime is indeed higher than in peacetime. However, they also suggest that similar factors predict motivation in both times, although their relative impact is altered by the situation. Reservists were more likely to be motivated by individual rather than collective incentives (in both peacetime and wartime situations), thus suggesting that “rally `round the flag” occurrences are not necessarily reflective of the social cohesion and collective reasoning.

Much ado about religion: Religiosity, resource loss, and support for political violence

The association between religion and violence has raised much interest in both academic and public circles. Yet on the individual level, existing empirical accounts are both sparse and conflicting. Based on previous research which found that religion plays a role in the support of political violence only through the mediation of objective and perceived deprivations, the authors test Conservation of Resource (COR) theory as an individual level explanation for the association of religion, socio-economic deprivations, and support for political violence. COR theory predicts that when individuals’ personal, social or economic resources are threatened, a response mechanism may include violence. Utilizing two distinct datasets, and relying on structural equation models analysis, the latter two stages of a three-stage study are reported here. In a follow-up to their previous article, the authors refine the use of socio-economic variables in examining the effects of deprivation as mediating between religion and political violence. Then, they analyze an independent sample of 545 Muslims and Jews, collected during August and September 2004, to test a psychological-based explanation based on COR theory. This study replaces measures of deprivation used in the previous stages with measures of economic and psychological resource loss. Findings show that the relationship between religion and support of political violence only holds true when mediated by deprivations and psychological resource loss. They also suggest that the typical tendency to focus on economic resource loss is over-simplistic as psychological, not economic, resources seem to mediate between religion and support of violence.