Can Militants Use Violence to Win Public Support? Evidence from the Second Intifada

David A. Jaeger, Esteban F. Klor*, Sami H. Miaari, M. Daniele Paserman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

This article investigates whether attacks against Israeli targets help Palestinian factions gain public support. We link individual-level survey data to the full list of Israeli and Palestinian fatalities during the period of the Second Intifada (2000–2005) 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, but not between them. That is, Fatah’s gains come at the expense of smaller secular factions, while Hamas’s 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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)528-549
Number of pages22
JournalJournal of Conflict Resolution
Volume59
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Apr 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2014

Keywords

  • factions’ strategies
  • outbidding
  • political preferences

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