Can militants use violence to win public support?
Subtitle: evidence from the second intifada
By: David A. Jaeger ... [et al.].
Contributors: National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 16475; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 16475.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource]
Description: "This paper investigates whether attacks against Israeli targets help Palestinian factions gain public support.  We link individual level survey data to the full list of Israeli fatalities during the period of the Second Intifada (2000-2006), and estimate a flexible discrete choice model for faction supported.  We find some support for the "outbidding" hypothesis, the notion that Palestinian factions use violence to gain prestige and influence public opinion within the community.  In particular, the two leading Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, gain in popularity following successful attacks against Israeli targets.  Our results suggest, however, that most movement occurs within either the secular groups or the Islamist groups, and not between them.  That is, Fatah's gains come at the expense of smaller secular factions while Hamas' gains come at the expense of smaller Islamic factions and the disaffected.  In contrast, attacks by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad lower support for that faction"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 1/6/2011.

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