Doctrine and Education Influences Terrorism, not Poverty

 Poverty breeds terrorism, we are told in authoritative tones, and hence there is no choice but to ease up on restrictions to avoid fostering further Palestinian anger and resentment. As simple and concise as this neat little theory may sound, there is one pesky problem with it: it is categorically and demonstrably false.

And by persisting with the belief that it is true, Israeli officials are operating under an entirely misguided assumption, one with potentially dangerous consequences for us all.

One Israeli minister said  “hungry people turn to terrorism. Without food and water, they will disrupt our lives.”

But like many sound bites, this contention simply does not stand up under further scrutiny.

To begin with, consider the fact that according to the World Bank, there are approximately 700 million people on the planet living in what is described as “extreme poverty,” which is defined as earning less than $1.90 a day. That is nearly 10% of the world’s population.

If the simple equation that suggests that poverty directly gives rise to terrorism were true, one would expect to find millions of people, if not more, taking up arms worldwide and launching terrorist attacks. But that is clearly not the case.

Numerous academic studies over the years clearly demonstrate this to be the case. In American Economic Review, there is “no significant association between terrorism and economic variables, such as income, once the effect of other country characteristics is taken into account.”

The same holds true vis-à-vis Palestinian terrorism. Studies have repeatedly found that those who engage in it are generally better off economically than most Palestinians.

A statistical analysis of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists published  in 2003, showed “The resulting evidence on the individual level suggests that both higher standards of living and higher levels of education are positively associated” with the likelihood of a Palestinian joining Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

Indeed, it was noted that Palestinian suicide bombers “tend to be of higher economic status and higher educational attainment than their counterparts in the population.”

Even if Israel were to buy every Palestinian family a plasma television set, provide them with free cable and throw in an Xbox video game console, these amenities would not deter acts of violence, which are driven not by indigence but by an ideology of hate which is constantly promoted through the education system.

The bottom line is that despair does not create terrorists; doctrine does. And only a counterterrorism policy that takes this into account has any chance of success.