In many ways Hamas’s attack on Israel sums up the essence of terrorism. The group’s mass incursions have seen its operatives storming Israeli towns, killing and kidnapping hundreds. This appears to have been done by the book when it comes to creating feelings of terror and escalating the situation.
Yet it’s also a reminder, as pioneering terrorism scholar Martha Crenshaw teaches, that terrorism depends on the specific context of the situation from which it arises, and at the same time its implications often go well beyond national boundaries.
Among the many observations that could be made, three are worth flagging. First and foremost, terrorism is in its nature a highly developed form of psychological warfare. Number-wise, terrorism kills far fewer people than malaria, car accidents and cardiovascular diseases, but polls consistently show that many people remain highly concerned about terrorism.
