Boaz Ganor

Reichman University (IDC) Herzliya · Government

Intrinsically, targeted killings are carried out in the areas in which terrorists live and operate. In most cases, these areas are densely populated cities and villages, in which the terrorists reside either within or in close proximity to civilian structures.

Offensive counter-terrorism action in general, and targeted killing operations in particular, may have negative repercussions in the short term (days after the targeted killing), medium term (weeks or months after the operation), or long term (years after the operation). These consequences will be defined here as the “boomerang effect” of targeted...

Targeted killing as a modus operandi is not a new phenomenon, but rather one that has changed and developed over the years. Some see this method as a direct continuation of the assassinations that have been recounted beginning in Biblical times—Ehud ben Gera’s assassination of the Moabite King Eglon, or the killing of Julius Caesar, the leader of t...

Targeted killings are a counter-terrorism measure that has been employed by the State of Israel ever since it has been forced to deal with the phenomenon of terrorism, i.e., since the establishment of the state in 1948 (in fact, it was used even prior to this, during the British Mandate era in the 1940s, which saw violent clashes between Arab gangs...

Based on the experience Israel has acquired over the years in carrying out targeted killings of terrorists, the following staged model may be proposed as a decision-making tool; it expresses and weighs the moral dilemmas and considerations regarding effectiveness that are analyzed in this book. The combination of the model’s components (described a...

The determination of who can be targeted in a targeted killing operation is a major issue underlying any assessment of the legitimacy of this action. Because Israel regards targeted killings as a legitimate military action in the framework of the war on terror, and not as a punitive action in the fight against crime, it is the principles of interna...

The terminology that Israel has chosen for the purpose of defining targeted killing operations is greatly significant, because it actually reflects Israel's position on this modus operandi, as well as the changing of the Israeli narrative over the years. In the 1970s, the targeted killings carried out around the world in the wake of the attack on I...

In summary, targeted killings are perceived in Israel—by decision-makers at the political level, the operational echelon (the heads of the defense and intelligence establishment), and the general Israeli public—as a central, important, and effective counter-terrorismmeasure. It can be said that there is a consensus on this issue in Israel, though o...

The September 1972 Munich Olympics massacre brought to light the critical need for internal coordination and international cooperation among intelligence, security and enforcement agencies, government ministries, and many others who deal with counterterrorism. Through an historical overview of the role of the counter-terrorism bureau and with inter...

The phenomenon of “lone wolf ” terrorism, which has increasingly attracted the attention of scholars, consists of terror attacks perpetrated without the operational involvement of terrorist organizations in initiating, planning, or executing the attack. This phenomenon lacks a clear center of gravity directing the actions of “lone wolf ” terrorists...

The use of targeted killings as a counterterrorism strategy requires a well-calculated decision-making process. While targeted killings can be beneficial for the protection of national security, they might as well result in a “Boomerang Effect,” counterproductively increasing terrorists’ support and motivation to perpetrate other attacks. Which key...

Typologies of terrorist attacks enable researchers to analyze the complex phenomenon of terrorism in an organized manner, while facilitating the formulation of effective counter-terrorism policies. This paper contributes to the literature on typologies of terrorism by proposing a new conceptual model which classifies the various terrorist attacks t...

This study was designed to investigate the background, psychological characteristics and motivations of independent actors who carried out attacks in Israel. It also examined the antecedent factors that influenced their decision to carry out an attack, and their retrospective attitudes to the act. Forty-five Palestinians who had carried out attacks...

The central goal of The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism is to systematically introduce scholars and practitioners to state-of-the-art approaches, methods, and issues in studying this vital phenomenon. This Handbook attempts to give structure and direction to the fast-growing but somewhat disjointed field of terrorism studies. The volume locates terror...

A new revolution has begun in counterterrorism—the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution. The AI revolution has had a significant impact on many areas of security and intelligence. The use of AI and big data in general, and in the field of intelligence and counterterrorism in particular, has led to intense debates between supporters of the contin...

One of the most challenging type of terror incidents is that of an extortionist attack, such as hostage-taking and kidnappings. Extortion attacks require governments to evaluate a series of options for handling the incident, ranging from giving in to all of the terrorists' demands, to full-blown military-rescue operations. Since the 1970s, Israel h...

What conclusions can be drawn from the little information coming out of the terrorist attack at an LGBT club in Orlando; an attack in which the terrorist, Omar Saddiqui Mateen, burst into the Pulse nightclub and murdered 50 civilians, held hostages and injured dozens more over a period of approximately three hours before security forces stormed the...

The Paris Black Friday attacks perpetrated on November 13 by Islamic State terrorists constituted the most serious series of attacks in Europe over the last decade. Just as the 9/11 attacks forced the US government to reconsider its counterterrorism doctrine, the Paris attacks compel the French government, European states, and the entire Western wo...

The study addressed the relationship between terror attacks and public opinion among potentially supportive communities. We investigated whether terror attacks by Palestinian groups predict and are predicted by Palestinian public opinion. We examined the relationship of public opinion to total terror attacks, suicide attacks, and attacks by differe...

During the past year, the Islamic State (IS) has taken control of extensive areas of the Middle East. Its military achievements, extreme and historically unprecedented barbarism, success in recruiting thousands of young people from around the world to its ranks in Iraq and Syria, its store of financial resources and, above all, its skilled use of s...

This chapter expands on terrorism's exploitation of liberal democracy and explains the main dilemmas that this generates for the liberal democratic state plagued by terrorism. States operating under liberal democratic values generally find themselves the target of terrorist attacks because the very system itself can easily facilitate, communicate,...

This chapter discusses Hamas as an evolving example of what has been discussed in the previous chapters. As the rest of the book has repeatedly emphasized, an effective counter-terrorism policy cannot do without an understanding of the rationales, ideologies, and hierarchy of goals behind terrorist organizations. The model outlined so far in this b...

This chapter explains the rationale that motivates terrorist organizations in general, and Islamist terrorist organizations in particular, and what fuels their determination to preserve their operative capability. Far from being irrational or depraved, terrorists are rational actors who employ cost-benefit calculations in determining when and how t...

This chapter explores the debate on whether or not liberal democracy can eliminate terrorism. There are two factors to be considered when a terrorist group is formed—the motivation and the capability to advance terrorist agendas to the public at large. A terrorist organization cannot survive if either of these factors ceases to be. Within the doctr...

Many associate terrorism with irrational behavior and believe only lunatics could perpetuate such horrific acts. Global Alert debunks this myth by anatomizing the rationale behind modern terrorism. It draws a distinct picture of its root and instrumental causes and plots the different stages of a terrorist attack, from indoctrination and recruitmen...

Israel’s decision makers must internalize the fact that the ongoing battle against terrorism is a complicated and sensitive one, intimately tied to Israel’s political, diplomatic, legal and PR conduct. On the one hand, the war on terror is a multi-pronged battle involving many enemy players, which requires the formulation of an individual policy...

Though the counterterrorism strategies of both American administrations stem from similar worldviews and values, they significantly differ in their understanding of the threat. The Bush administration adopted a proactive strategy designed to promote democracy in problematic countries and regions as part of the campaign against terrorism. In contras...

Inarguably, the Islamist revolutions in the Arab countries’ neighboring Israel, and the Muslim Brotherhood's rise to power in these countries, presents Israel with many, perhaps unprecedented, political and security challenges. However, in assessing the threat to its southern border, Israel must analyze in depth the intra- and extra-organizational...

The study investigated the effects of Israel's use of offensive, defensive and conciliatory tactics on Palestinian's use of terrorist tactics. Proportional hazard modeling assessed the effects of Israeli tactics on total terrorist activity by Palestinians, suicidal and non-suicidal acts of terror, and acts of terror attributed to Hamas, Palestinian...

Boaz Ganor speaks about the definition of terrorism in a video clip

Criminal syndicates and terrorist organizations are inherently different, one motivated by profit and the other by political goals. Yet their difference enables them to cooperate for their mutual benefit. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the drug trade; from harvesting and trafficking in illegal substances, it has been an easy transition...

An effective de-radicalization process in prisons is intended to facilitate the renouncement of violence and terrorism by those that have carried out such offenses. A key lesson that can be drawn from Israel's de-radicalization efforts is that it is possible, indeed recommended, to treat inmates—regardless of their level of radicalization—in a dign...

Groups of second- and third-generation Muslim immigrants in Europe are increasingly undergoing radicalization processes that can lead to violent activity. These immigrants find relief for their frustrations in global jihadi ideology and radical Islam. In seeking to understand these radicalization processes within the European context, the author dr...

Knowledge about the ways in which suicide attacks are recruited and prepared and on the motivation of suicide bombers and the factors that influence the decisions of organizers of suicide attacks has so far been sketchy and sporadic, derived mostly from media sources. In this study, 15 Palestinian would-be suicides and 14 organizers of suicide atta...

This chapter examines some of the most widely researched trends and developments within the phenomenon of modern international terrorism, providing policy recommendations on how to counter its emerging threats – particularly that of the Global Jihad movement and “homegrown” terrorism. The magnitude of the modern terrorist threat was demonstrated by...

Terrorism is not a new phenomenon; it has long been a method of violent action by organizations and individuals attempting to achieve political goals. Indeed, terrorism is not an end but rather a modus operandi. According to Bruce Hoffman, all terrorists share one common denominator: they “live” in the future, and are convinced that they will defea...

Terrorism informatics has been defined as the application of advanced methodologies, information fusion and analysis techniques to acquire, integrate process, analyze, and manage the diversity of terrorism-related information for international and homeland security-related applications. The wide variety of methods used in terrorism informatics are...

Since the 1970s, many researchers have proposed typologies to sort the phenomenon of terror into different categories and to divide terror organizations into groups based on various characteristics of their activities. These typologies were designed to facilitate understanding of the phenomenon of terror and of terror organizations’ processes, stru...

The primary objective of the authors of this publication is to understand the efficacy of terrorists use of the Internet and the scope of this activity, and to analyze the content, graphics and source code. Topics covered include the use of the Internet for psychological warfare in general and for terrorist narrow-casting to specific audiences. The...

The expansion and escalation of global terrorism has left populations across the world and decision-makers responsible for contending with it unprepared. This book is the first attempt of its kind to create a manual of counter-terrorism measures on all the relevant operational levels. The author's main purpose is to give decision-makers the tools t...

The ability of a few individuals to manipulate public opinion, thus influencing the highest policies of the land, makes terrorism a strategic threat to democratic societies. Terrorism undermines the sense of security and disrupts everyday life, harming the target country's ability to function. This strategy seeks to drive public opinion to pressure...

Most researchers tend to believe that an objective and internationally accepted definition of terrorism can never be agreed upon; after all, they say, 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.' The question of who is a terrorist, according to this school of thought, depends entirely on the subjective outlook of the definer. This articl...

The statement, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”, has become not only a cliché, but also one of the most difficult obstacles in coping with terrorism. The matter of definition and conceptualization is usually a purely theoretical issue—a mechanism for scholars to work out the appropriate set of parameters for the research they...