ABSTRACT
A terrorist organization decides to operate outside the borders of the country that it has targeted for primary action, when it concludes that such activity will serve its interests. Terrorist activities outside the target country have a greater impact than internal activities, as they reach a wider audience. An internal terrorist incident will receive international attention only if it is particularly gruesome and causes a great number of casualties, while an external action constitutes, by definition, an international problem, and thereby increases the potential publicity benefit. While some terrorist organizations are internationalist in ideological orientation, others possess a distinctly nationalist bent, and focus almost exclusively on the struggle within the target country. The various Palestinian terrorist organizations differ in their conception of the armed struggle; it is therefore not surprising that they also differ in their approach to the strategy of carrying out terrorism outside the borders of Israel.
