ABSTRACT
This chapter examines that the most significant difference is neither the number of death-defying pilots, nor the fact that many of the pilots survived, or that the actions were remembered as patriotic heroism rather than irrational suicide attacks. It resorts to the stylistically clumsy formula of suicide bombings/martyrdom operations', sometimes reversing the order, or opting for the less burdened neologism 'human bomb'. The chapter shows that one person's suicide bomber may be another's martyr, and vice versa: one person's self-sacrificing hero may be the other's horrifying suicide terrorist. The wave of Palestinian martyrdom operations during the second Intifada was preceded by a smaller series of suicide bombings between 1994 and 1997. However, Palestinians grew gradually disenchanted with the prospects of the future as Israel colonized more and more Palestinian land instead of dismantling settlements. The prevailing media representation is of Palestinian suicide attacks carried out by frustrated young male Islamists from the underclass.
