By A.M. Goldstein

HAIFA —A University of Haifa study has found that a significant proportion of the suicide terrorist attacks carried out in Israel reflect a struggle between families or other social networks.  The bombers act under the auspices of one of the established organizations, Hamas and Palestinian Jihad, but are not operated by them.

Dr. Ami Pedahzur and doctoral candidate Arie Perliger of the Haifa institution's National Security Studies Center , analyzed Palestinian terrorism.  Up until the year 2000, they found, most suicide attacks around the world were indeed carried out by the established organizations.  The new millennium saw a transfer of the deadly initiative to local social networks.

"The networks are based on family and social ties," Pedahzur and Perliger stated.  "Many who join these networks never belonged to any organization."

"In a large percentage of the cases, they continued, "the use of suicide attacks was intended to help the network in its struggle for political power and control in the region where it operated in competition with other families or networks."

Another important finding by the University of Haifa terrorism researchers was that the suicide terrorists were peripheral figures in the network.  They also do not go through any long process of training and preparation.

The terrorists join up from the immediate environment of the network only for the purpose of a suicide attack, according to the researchers.  They reason, they claim, is that the more marginal the figure is in the network, his (or her) "disappearance" will do less to harm the unity and ability of the organization to continue to act.

Pedahzur and Perliger made use of a research technique known as social networks analysis to arrive at their conclusions.  This method, they believe, "can help significantly in coping with suicide bombings.  It enables identification of the central figures in a network that essentially exists only to continue existing."  It locates the other background factors involved in the creation of that network, they explained.

A.M. Goldstein is the English language editor for the University of Haifa's Department of External Affairs.