The Smarter Bomb: Women and Children as Suicide Bombers
Berko, an authority on terrorism and researcher for the National Security Council, explores primarily why and how Palestinian terrorist groups use women. Based on years of interviews with Palestinian leaders, the book attempts to answer the question: are women smart bombs or stupid ones? Mainly, Berko finds, they are desperate ones. Arab cultural attitudes about women directly influence terrorist attitudes toward the use of female suicide bombers. Male handlers often exploit women bombers sexually, and then use that exploitation and associated shame to both motivate and intimidate the women to bomb. Berko further reveals that terrorist leaders use female bombers only reluctantly, and that women bombers actually decrease their standing in Arab society because effective female suicide bombers challenge the cultural norm of male dominance. Female suicide bombers are very effective, Berko concludes, in this fascinating look inside terrorist practices.(Publishers Weekly)Anat Berko’s highly insightful . . . book focuses on the motivations of Palestinian suicide bombers, especially women and children . . . two groups that are especially exploited in patriarchal Palestinian society. [Berko] has spent many years interviewing Palestinian security prisoners at their Israeli jails, including the operatives (whose suicide missions failed) and their dispatchers. Fluent in Arabic and Arab culture, she was able to speak intimately with the prisoners and gain their trust. Their identities are disguised to elicit the most candid observations and to protect them. . . . [R]eaders nevertheless will benefit from the wealth of personal, cultural and operational details revealed by such firsthand field work. . . . For the light it sheds on Palestinian society and how its most vulnerable are exploited,The Smarter Bombis highly recommended. A peaceful accommodation between Palestinians and Israelis will not move forward as long as large swaths of Palestinian society are manipulated and directed toward violence.(The Washington Times)Berko . . . has been given unprecedented access to numerous terrorists and would-be terrorists in the country’s prisons, and she has apparently won their trust. In interview after interview, men and women open up to her and relate the most intimate details about the phenomenon of female suicide attacks against Israel during the second intifada. . . . Berko set out to understand why women became involved in suicide attacks, and also to understand the different terrorist organizations’ viewpoints on using women in their war against Israel. . . . Her book is full of fascinating stories and insights precisely because she lets the people speak for themselves. . . . This remains one of the most interesting studies on terrorism to have been produced in recent years.(The Jerusalem Post)The book contains a wealth of information, much of it presented as raw data in the form of reports on conversations. Others can benefit from Dr. Berko's valuable work to draw their own conclusions.(Middle East Forum)Dr. Berko’s chilling analysis of the phenomenon of Palestinian women and children forced by societal factors to become suicide bombers, for lack of any other options, makes for riveting reading.(Dr. Henry A. Kissinger)Anat Berko reflects a unique combination of both a senior experienced practitioner and an established academic who has provided novel and authentic insights into the world of suicide women and children bombers emanating from the Muslim world. Her narratives and studies illuminate concrete threats that could turn up on the doorstep of every one of us wherever we are, and should be compulsory reading for professionals and the public at large. The fruits of her labor have not only contributed to a better understanding of the issue, but have already become life-saving factors in the constant struggle against terror.(Ephraim Halevy, former head of Mossad)This book is a remarkable contribution to explaining the unexplainable, to understanding the inexplicable. It takes us to the next level of scholarship about suicide bombers who are not men, but rather are increasingly women and children. Anat Berko helps us to see through their eyes, to think as they think, to feel their hearts beat in their chests as they prepare to push the button.(Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president emeritus, The George Washington University)In this fine book, the Israeli forensic specialist Anat Berko focuses on the special psychology of female and adolescent suicide terrorists. She convincingly demonstrates that in a disintegrating society, female Muslims suffer from a double oppression—political and gender. Exposed to the media revolution, they find liberating the role ofshaheedaand even the prisons in which Berko met with them. A gifted interviewer, Berko’s book overflows with rich and riveting material.(Jerrold M. Post, The George Washington University; author of The Mind of the Terrorist)Anat Berko's thrilling research exposes how terror groups exploit women and children to achieve their goals. This is the first attempt of its kind by an Israeli author to explain to the outside world the phenomenon of brainwashing and recruiting women and children. The exclusive interviews with the women, as well as the face-to-face meetings with Hamas and Islamic leaders, offer a unique insight into the world of terrorism.(Khaled Abu Toameh, veteran reporter and commentator on Palestinian affairs and correspondent, The Jerusalem Post)Anat Berko gets into the mind of the female suicide bomber through direct interviews with those who have been captured. Her work is critical for the war against terrorism, which will only be won if the true motivation of suicide bombers is deciphered, as it is in her book. For this reason, her work is not only fascinating, but it also makes vital reading for anyone seeking to understand the sources of the new terrorism that the world has been facing since 9/11.(Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations)