Jewish Terrorism in Israel

International experts on terror and security studies, Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger propose a theory of violence that contextualizes not only the wave of terror acts committed over the past few decades but also historical instances of terror that stretch back centuries. Beginning with ancient Palestine and its encounters with Jewish terrorism, the authors analyze the social, political, and cultural factors that sponsor extreme violence, proving that religious terrorism is not the fault of one faith, but flourishes within any counterculture that adheres to a totalistic ideology.When a totalistic community perceives an external threat, it responds with violence, the connectivity of the group and the rhetoric of its leaders bolstering the commitment and collective mindset of its members. In ancient times, the Jewish sicariiof Judea carried out stealth assassinations against their Roman occupiers. In the mid-twentieth century, to facilitate their independence, Jewish groups committed acts of terror against British soldiers. They also murdered Arab citizens, most famously in the bombing of the King David hotel. More recently, Yigal Amir, a member of a Jewish terrorist cell, assassinated Yitzhak Rabin to express his opposition to the Oslo Peace Accords. Conducting interviews with former Jewish terrorists, political and spiritual leaders, and law-enforcement officials, and culling information from rare documents and surveys of terrorist networks, Pedahzur and Perliger construct an extensive portrait of terrorist aggression and describe the conditions that give rise to modern zealotry.