ABSTRACT
Suicide attacks in the modern era began in Lebanon in 1983, at the instigation of the Lebanese-Shiite terror organization, Hizballah. During the 1980s, Lebanon served as a central arena for the "development" of the suicide attack method. Suicide attacks using a boat bomb are familiar to various places in the world as well as in the Israel-Arab arena. The use of an aircraft as a platform for the perpetration of a suicide attack was first effected in World War II by Japanese "kamikaze" pilots against American vessels in the Pacific Ocean. The goal of suicide attacks, much like other terror activities, is to plant fear in the adversary's heart and weaken his determination. An historical example of the use of Islamic terrorists in suicide attacks can be found in three Muslim societies in Asia during the era of Colonialism, between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries.
